Updated

Once again, the media has outdone itself.

A few days ago, President Obama was getting pounded for being too placid, too cool about the huge oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Then the president went on the "Today" show proclaiming that he is doing everything he can, talking to all kinds of people:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar. We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Almost immediately after that, the "kick butt" comment was kicked back at Mr. Obama in a racial context.

Far-left Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart wrote: "African-American men are taught at very young ages (or learn the hard way) to keep our emotions in check, to not lose our cool, lest we be perceived as dangerous or menacing."

Can you believe this? In the space of 48 hours, Mr. Obama has gone from apathetic to menacing because he's a black guy. Amazing.

Political writer Mark Halperin also framed the issue with race:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK HALPERIN, TIME MAGAZINE: Matt Drudge takes the Matt Lauer quote and he casts it as "Obama Goes Street," and includes this photo of an angry-looking Barack Obama. I think it's all pretty clear to all of us what's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Well, it's not clear to me.

Apparently this whole thing has to do with a Matt Drudge headline, as Mark Halperin said, that says "Obama Goes Street." Also, the slang "street" is sometimes used in African-American precincts.

But again, this is just dumb. It's obvious the president is feeling the heat from the oil spill. His poll numbers are cratering. Sixty-nine percent of the public thinks he's doing a bad job on it according to a new ABC News poll.

So he decides to be a tougher guy, and now we have a racial thing.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

And that's "The Memo."

Pinheads & Patriots

A simply amazing story to begin. Eighty-seven-year-old Irene Simpson was sitting in her easy chair when a tornado hit her home in central Illinois. The house was completely demolished, but Irene emerged unscathed with two possessions: a picture of her son and a copy of my book "A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity."

Irene says she has insurance and she'll be fine, but we have offered to help her in any way possible because she is a patriot.

On the pinhead front, a Tampa, Florida, school had an unwanted visitor: a 7-foot alligator that somehow got into the cafeteria at Stewart Middle School without a hall pass.

Makes sense. If you're hungry, you go to the cafeteria.

Unfortunately for the gator, wildlife officials were nearby and he was ejected from the premises. There is no truth to the rumor that he was also suspended from the middle school for two weeks.

The gator is a pinhead.