A Presidential Pitfall: Speaking One’s Mind

President Obama was reminded of that again last week when he declared that the police in Cambridge, Mass., had “acted stupidly” in arresting a prominent black scholar at his own home. He did not anticipate how those words would inflame an already searing national debate on race. But he soon concluded that, as aides quoted him, “it was stupid to use the word stupid.”

Many political observers were surprised because Mr. Obama seems so disciplined. When he speaks extemporaneously, he often pauses before he speaks and appears to be thinking his answers through even as he gives them.

But his comment last week on the case of Henry Louis Gates Jr., a Harvard professor, was not a slip of the tongue, advisers said. Mr. Obama said what he wanted to say. The question is whether presidents can really do that.

“They want to be genuine, they want to speak their mind,” said Ari Fleischer, who was press secretary for President George W. Bush. “But there’s the recognition that you’re no longer able to muse the way you’re used to. If you’re too candid, that can really haunt you. So presidents learn the art of being circumspect. And they chafe at it. They want to be genuine. But in many ways, they all become more guarded as time goes on.”

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