good morning. harsh words. president obama slams the officers in massachusetts who arrested a prominent black scholar in his own home. >> the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they weren their own home. >> did he go too far and rewrite the headlines that should have been about health care reform? raid. dozens of police and federal agents descend on the houston clinic of michael jackson's personal doctor. are they getting closer to filing criminal charges in the singer's death? and dog's best friend. a pet owner grabs old of the jaws of a seven-foot alligator to rescue his family's cherished pet and loses parts of his fingers in the process. we'll talk to him today, fingers in the process. we'll talk to him today, thursday, july 23rd, 2009. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and welcome to "today" on this thursday morning, i'm meredith vieira. >> and i'm matt lauer. president obama's prime-time news conference last night mostly about health care. but it was the comments he made at the end of that news conference about the arrest of an african-american harvard professor last week that are getting a lot of attention this morning. >> everybody's talking about it. the president said the cambridge, massachusetts, police department quote acted stupidly, end quote, when officers arrested henry louis gates jr. for disorderly conduct after being called to his town when a neighbor suspected a burglary was taking place. of course he had a lot to say about health care, as well. we're going to get to all of that in just a moment. >> also ahead, if you're one of those people who's been told that you should save your child's baby teeth for the stem cells they contain, question is are you being taken for aride? dr. nancy synderman will be here to fill us in on what some doctors are saying about that. >> and we'll have more of my interview with susan boyle, a singing sensation. we'll also surprise her with the two people that have inspired her most in her singing career. and i get to sing with her. can't wait for that, huh? >> wow. not sure where to go with that. maybe to this first story. the president's prime-time news conference was held last night, and some very strong comments that the president made that had nothing to do with health care. >> i don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in this. but i think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. >> the president was speaking about a man he calls his friend, henry louis gates jr. last thursday, returning home from a week's travel, gates couldn't get the front door of his house open. after enlisting help from his driver, gates pushed his way into his own home. a woman in the neighborhood thought it was a burglary and called police. upon their arrival, cambridge police reported that gates refused to be cooperative, telling sergeant james crowley, this is what happens to black men in america. other officers were called in and gates was arrested at his home for disorderly conduct amid accusations of racial profiling, the charges were dropped tuesday, and the firestorm appeared to be dying down. until president obama spoke last night using very blunt language. >> number two, that the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. >> so were the president's mentions appropriate? michael eric tyson is an author and commentator who has written extensively about race in america and michael smirconicz is host of the morning show. let's go with dicing and smirconicz. mr. tyson, let me start with you. you think this was a case of racial profiling and it's kind of emblematic of a larger problem that a lot of black men face in this country. let me ask you specifically about the president's words and his choice of words last night. what did you think? >> i think they were quite appropriate. finally somebody with a bully pulpit stepped up to articulate the growing sentiment and fashions of all americans, not just african-americans, that something has to be done to stem this tide of unfairly targeting black men in particular, latino men in particular, for crimes that all people commit and being suspected of carrying the virus of criminality when nothing more could be untrue. the reality is he used the bully pulpit to tell the truth -- >> you say what all people are thinking. not all people agree with the president on this, and certainly the cambridge police department doesn't agree with it. and the officer involved, the sergeant involved doesn't agree with it. and what about the fact, michael, that he said, i don't have all the facts in the case, but they reacted stupidly. how does that work? >> well, here's how it works, matt. we can assume, usually black men don't have the kind of high profile that professor gates have and don't usually have a president standing behind them to say look, let's act reasonably here. there are thousands of cases, i believe, in which police people have said things about black people, about black men, they have no kind of social status to back up their words. so i think the president said, look, i don't have all the facts here. but it is clear when a man has proved that he lives in his own home and satisfies the fact that he's not a burglar, to arrest him then, after that fact, is acting rather stupidly and acting not in the best sense of protecting the common good in cambridge, nor protecting the people of cambridge from a potential criminal. >> michael, what did you think of the president's potential use of words? >> i think he should not have used the word stupidly. i think there was probably plenty of stupidity to go around on all sides of this case. what i notice, matt, is that whatever you look like seems to dictate how you view the facts of a case, where none of us were present. and that tells me that in this country we've still got a great deal of ground to cover in terms of race relations. the president weighed in on disputed facts and came down, admittedly, on the side of a man that he regards as his friend. but if for a moment you look at the police officer's interpretation or side of what transpired, he arrives in response to a 911 call, he's on the porch, he sees professor gates, doesn't know who professor gates is, asks him to come outside, and the first thing that occurs is professor gates says, why? because i'm a black man in america. and from there it escalates. i think one could reasonably reach the conclusion that it was professor gates who lit the fuse on this incendiary situation. >> getting back to the president's choice of words that the cambridge police acted stupidly, isn't this possibly and i'll go to you michael dyson on this one, isn't this one of those cases where both parties deserve the benefit of the doubt? >> well, there's no doubt about that, matt. but here's the point, racial profiling has proved that black men rarely get the benefit of the doubt, and innocent until proven guilty. >> but you keep going to the larger picture, michael, and i'm asking you about the president's comments about the cambridge police specifically. >> well, i'm talking specifically about the cambridge police. first of all mr. smerconish detailing of the story is from the policeman's viewpoint. professor gates said he was in his home. he showed his i.d. he satisfied the officer that he lived there. and then, when he followed the officer out trying to get his badge number and his i.d., then he refused to cooperate, then when he was on his porch, he was arrested. so the point is that i think that what the president is saying is that when you have satisfied the case that this man is not a criminal, in cambridge, he is not a thief, he is in his own home, at that point, yes, emotions may rise, yes, it's harsh words may be exchanged, but the reality is that no justification to arrest this man when the initial call was for breaking and entering, a potential breaking and entering case. i think at that time the facts justified, regardless of what knowing what happened he was acting stupidly and outside the bounds of the initial call of the law. >> michael smerconish, i know you've been talking about this on our radio show. give me a sense of what people are saying about it? is it what you said a second ago, it determines how you look that determines your point of view on this? >> it's almost as if i can see where the call coming from and know how folks will weigh in on this. one thing that's not being said by anybody, if you look at that still photograph that shows professor gates in handcuffs, i take note of the fact that there is a pretty large african-american police officer right in the foreground of that picture. and by the way, the guy who took it said, and he's got no dog in this fight, he said that he saw professor gates as being agitated. look, i don't know what happened. i just am surprised that the president seems to think, and i'm a supporter of the president, but i'm surprised that the president seems to think he does know what happened. the truth is, none of us know what happened. >> interesting debate and interesting to get both of your perspectives on this. michael and michael, thanks, guys. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> for more, here's meredith. >> matt, thank you. of course the president's real reason for holding a news conference was to seek the public's support for his plan to reform health care. so did he change any minds? nbc's chief white house correspondent chuck todd was there. good morning to you, chuck. >> reporter: good morning, meredith. well, it's been the tenth event on health care in the last ten days that the president held. but last night's news conference was as much a symposium on the issue as much as it was a give and take. >> good evening. please be seated. >> reporter: the president began by trying to calm the political waters of the health care debate. >> so folks are skeptical. and that is entirely legitimate because they haven't seen a lot of laws coming out of washington lately that help them. >> reporter: mr. obama reiterated his pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class. but he said he is open to a tax hike on families whose income exceeds $1 million. >> to me that meets my principle that it's not being shoulder by families who are already having a tough time. >> reporter: the president said he still wants to seek coverage for the 47 million uninsured. but acknowledged he could come up short. >> the estimates are at least 97% to 98% of americans. >> reporter: using the president's math, that could still lead 9 million to 10 million people without insurance. as for the politics of this debate, the president bristled at the notion he has been blaming republicans. >> you haven't seen me out there blaming the republicans. i've been a little frustrated by some of the misinformation that's been coming out of the republicans. >> reporter: still, he side-stepped the issue of whether it was democrats who are now the stumbling block to reform, even though they hold large majorities in congress. in nearly an hour he only answered ten questioners. at one point drifting from health care into a discussion of the deficit. >> everybody who's out there who has been ginned up about this idea that the obama administration wants to spend and spend and spend, the fact of the matter is, is that we inherited a enormous deficit, but health care reform is not going to add to that deficit. >> reporter: now, there were two audiences last night, meredith. one was folks that are worried about health care. and they've learned that maybe their taxes won't go up, but somebody's will. probably the most wealthy americans. but then it was congress. and what they learned last night is the president is a lot more flexible on this august deadline. he didn't really say he was going to hold congress to it. and he seems to be flexible about what -- how you would define some of these things like a public insurance plan. meredith? >> all right, chuck todd, thank you. republican congressman eric cantor from virginia is the house minority whip and senator chris dodd is the chair of the senate health, education, labor and pensions committee. the only senate committee to pass a health care bill so far. good morning to both of you. >> good morning, meredith. >> congressman, if i could start with you. you said that health care legislation currently moving through congress is taking us down a dangerous course. did you hear anything last night that would change your mind? >> meredith, what i heard last night was a president that seemed somewhat frustrated that people don't understand what this government health care plan is about. and, you know, throughout the hour-long press conference last night, i think people still have a lot of questions about what it means for them and their families. what does the government plan mean for them? and you know, it is just imperative, i think, that we get this right. and i think that's where all of us are right now, is to make sure we don't rush to judgment, that we don't just try and get something passed, because we all know what that can lead to, given what this congress has been about over the last several months. >> let me bring in senator dodd, because it's not just eric cantor saying this, it's members of your own party, and increasingly the public expressing this skepticism. what specifically did the president say last night, specifically, that would change minds? >> is that a question for me, meredith? >> yes, it is. >> i think he's trying to calm the waters. you described it well in your introduction. this is a question we're getting a lot more fear, and exaggerations about this. the president said over and over again, this is a plan where you get to keep your doctor, you make the choices, if you like the plan you have, we're not going to take it away. most people like the plans they have in this country. we need to leave alone that which is working and try to fix that which is broken. he mentioned the 47 million without insurance. there are about 30 million people in this country who are underinsured. we're consuming about 18% of our gross domestic product, 62% of bankruptcies in this country are directly related to health care crises. 50% of the home foreclosures are related to the health care crisis. >> but he still didn't specifically say how we're going to pay for this and i think that's a concern for most americans. >> it's not just the president's call. and eric made this point and i'll make it as well. obviously that's a decision that we in the congress have to decide on how to do this. the shared responsibility. there are various ideas out there that are dploeting around but we need to stick with this. the notion somehow we ought to put this off to a later date, which some seem to be suggesting, i think is wrong. that's a washington answer. this is a problem for 70 years, meredith. it's defied the efforts of every president, democrat and republican, and every congress for 70 years. if it had been easy it would have been fixed years ago. our job now is to stick with it, because it's no longer unacceptable that we deal with health care. it's unsustainable economically. yesterday the chairman of the federal reserve board made the case again. this problem of health care must be addressed or our economic recovery is going to be difficult, if not impossible. >> what about the charges against the republicans that they are playing politics here? the president referred to republican strategist bill kristol who said even if the republicans want to compromise, better to go for the kill. he also referenced senator demint who said if the president fails here, it will break him. is that what the republicans are trying to do just by politics here? because it sounds like that. >> meredith, that's just another strong man argument. that's just not the case. we have said consistently that republicans do not accept the status quo. but what we want to do is make sure that we get it right. and the president said that, as well. you know, we've got questions of what actually a government health care plan means. i mean, what we've heard in the president's explanation last night was that somehow the government is going to stop doctors from being able to prescribe what it is that the patient needs. now i don't think that the families out there looking and questioning what a government health care plan is about really want to see that happen. i think they trust their doctors. and we do have a much larger question about how to pay for this. and what we didn't hear last night was the details of what president obama's plan does, which is imposes a huge burden on small businesses. >> all right -- >> that's how he wants to pay for this plan. and right now we've got to be about job creation. >> congressman, we're running out of time. very, very quickly, the speaker of the house nancy pelosi said she thinks she has the votes on the floor to get legislation passed by august 8th when you go on recess. yes or no, do you believe that will happen? >> you know, i think there's still a lot of unanswered questions. and if they get this thing passed next week, it will have to be a changed bill. because right now there are too many unanswered questions. >> and chris dodd, what do you think will happen on the senate side? >> we've got a good chance. we could keep working at this. but we need to keep at it. again 14,000 people today will lose their health insurance, health coverage and that happens every single day. 400 people in virginia lose it today. 100 people in my state. people out across the country here. this is all washington talk. they're going through an awful lot. every one of us in congress have a good health care plan. if we had to go through what most americans are going through we'd be busy trying to fix this. >> thank you so much for your time this morning. >> thank you, meredith. >> let's move over to the news desk right now. ann is standing by. she's got all the headlines. good morning, ann. >> good morning, matt and meredith. good morning, everybody. also in the news this morning, north korea announced today it will not re-enter six-party talks to end its nuclear program. and it blasted the u.s. for its attitude on the matter. in reaction, secretary of state hillary clinton said this morning that north korea has no friends left to protect it from u.n. sanctions. and she said north korea's nuclear ambitions could provoke a nuclear arms race in the region. there are reports that one of osama bin laden's sons was killed in a u.s. missile strike in pakistan earlier this year. it is believed that 27-year-old saad bin laden was not the target of the u.s. attack but was among those killed when a predator drone fired a missile at an al qaeda target in western pakistan. there was a show of support last night for private first class bough bergdahl captured by the taliban in pakistan. hundreds turned out for a vigil. six people are hospitalized after a shooting last night at texas southern university. police believe the shooting at a community rally may have been gang related. investigators looking into last weekend's rail crash in san francisco are focusing on human error as the cause of the accident that sent one commuter train slamming into another, injuring more than 40 people. surveillance video of the crash was released on wednesday. general motors says sales fell 15% worldwide in the second quarter of the year, compared to the same period a year ago. but gm insists the car market is beginning to turn around. as for wall street, cnbc's melissa lee is at the new york stock exchange with more. >> good morning to you, ann. in addition to earnings and the likes of mcdonald's as well as microsoft today, investors also h