OBAMA MOVES TO END FIRESTORM CREATED BY HIS 'STUPIDLY' COMMENT: President pays surprise visit to White House press corps. (Video)

     *After stepping into a pile of you-know-what with his "the police acted stupidly" comment regarding the arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates by a white police officer, President Obama finds himself backtracking but not completely apologizing.

     When the day (Friday) began the White House said it would have nothing else to say about Obama's "stupidly" comment. However, when the Cambridge police dept. and Massachusetts police officers, both black and white, demanded an apology form the prez, the situation at the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue obviously changed.

     Friday afternoon Mr. Obama found himself in front of a surprised White House press corps to make this announcement:

     "Because this has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically," Mr. Obama said of the man who placed the handcuffs on Prof. Gates. "And I could have calibrated those words differently."

     Mr. Obama, now calling Sgt. James Crowley a "good man," steered debate away from race and towards a simple confrontation between two men - a respected academic and an armed police officer - who each expected more deference than either got when they met on the porch of that now famous yellow house in Cambridge, Mass.

     Watch the videos below:

Mass police ask for apology

Obama's statement about Gates/police

Earlier we reported ...

OBAMA'S 'STUPIDLY' REMARK CAUSES DEBATE: President criticized for description of Cambridge police who arrested Skip Gates; plus cop refuses to apologize.

     *President Barack Obama said Thursday he was surprised by the uproar over his comments that a white police officer in Cambridge, Mass., had acted "stupidly" in arresting renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates for disorderly conduct.

      The president stopped short of taking back his words, but did acknowledge hearing word that the sergeant who made the arrest is an "outstanding police officer."

      "I have to say I am surprised by the controversy surrounding my statement," Obama said in an interview with ABC News, "because I think it was a pretty straightforward comment that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home."

      The white police sergeant who arrested Gates said Thursday he's disappointed President Barack Obama said officers acted "stupidly" without knowing all the facts.

      Sgt. James Crowley responded to Gates' home near Harvard University last week to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded Gates show him identification. Police say Gates at first refused and accused the officer of racism.

      Gates was charged with disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday, and Gates has since demanded an apology from Crowley.

      Obama was asked about the arrest of Gates, who is his friend, at the end of a nationally televised news conference on health care Wednesday night.

      "I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three — what I think we know separate and apart from this incident — is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

      In radio interviews Thursday morning, Crowley maintained he had done nothing wrong in arresting Gates. "I support the president to a point, yes, I think it's disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue and something that plays out here," Crowley told WEEI. "As he himself said ... he doesn't know all the facts."

      Meanwhile, Gates has expressed "outrage" at his arrest, saying the white officer walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

      "This isn't about me; this is about the vulnerability of black men in America," Gates said Wednesday during CNN's "Moment of Truth – Countdown to Black in America 2." He said the incident made him realize how vulnerable poor people and minorities are "to capricious forces like a rogue policeman, and this man clearly was a rogue policeman."

      Crowley, 42, said he won't apologize. And his union has expressed "full and unqualified" support for him. Fellow officers, black and white, say he is well-liked and respected on the force. Crowley was a campus police officer at Brandeis University in July 1993 when he administered CPR trying to save the life of former Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis. Lewis, who was black, collapsed and died during an off-season workout.

      Gates' supporters maintain his arrest was a case of racial profiling. Officers were called to the home by a woman who said she saw "two black males with backpacks" trying to break in the front door. Gates has said he arrived home from an overseas trip and the door was jammed.

      Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, who also is black, has said she spoke with Gates and apologized on behalf of the city, and a statement from the city called the July 16 incident "regrettable and unfortunate."

      Police supporters charge that Gates, director of Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, was responsible for his own arrest by overreacting.

      Black students and professors at Harvard have complained for years about racial profiling by Cambridge and campus police. Harvard commissioned an independent committee last year to examine the university's race relations after campus police confronted a young black man who was using tools to remove a bike lock. The man worked at Harvard and owned the bike.

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