Barack Obama
"Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those words differently."
It's the comment that wouldn't die. After President Obama used the end of a prime-time news conference on health care to note that Cambridge, Mass., Police Sergeant Jim Crowley had acted "stupidly" when he arrested Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. on disorderly conduct charges in Gates' own home, the words sparked a controversy that overshadowed Obama's health care message. Seeking to relieve the pressure, Obama walked back his remarks during an impromptu appearance at a daily press briefing, but he stopped short of apologizing entirely. Despite a White House meeting that later took place with Gates, Crowley and Obama, some said the President needed to go further — Michigan Congressman Thaddeus McCotter vowed to introduce a House resolution calling on Obama to issue a formal and direct apology to Crowley.
Download the TIME BlackBerry App at app.time.com.