Commentary: Obama's mistakes are a warning sign

From the front page of CNN:

During the past few months, two events have revealed a side of President Obama that we knew little about. First came his remark in July when he said at a press conference that the police who arrested Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates had acted "stupidly."

The unrehearsed remark triggered controversy right at a time when Democrats needed to focus public attention on health care.

And last week, at a climactic moment for the health care debate in the Senate, Obama suddenly went to make a personal pitch for holding the 2016 Summer Olympics in Chicago, Illinois.

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While the comment about the Cambridge police was more understandable as a slip-up that will happen in the lifecycle of a presidency, the Olympics decision is more troubling. This was a decision vetted by his advisers and clearly thought through by the president himself. The decision caused an embarrassing situation and wasted precious media time, not on health care, but on defending his actions.

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In the end, two issues will shape this presidency much more than the Olympics: the outcome of the health care debate and the decision over whether to send troops to Afghanistan.

Nonetheless, the incident should serve as a warning to the president and his staff. This is the kind of action they should not repeat.