Here's what press secretary Robert Gibbs is saying today about Obama's comments last night on the Henry Louis Gates case: "Let me be clear. He was not calling the officer stupid, okay? He was denoting that ... at a certain point the situation got far out of hand, and I think all sides understand that."

Late Update: Gibbs' use of "denotes" is like a nervous tic. It sort of gives away that, as smooth as he is, he's scrambling a bit -- such as when he was faced with the outcry over the administration's decision not to release more photos of the abuse of detainees:

"The photos don't denote the existence of the investigations ...."

"No, Chuck, again, the existence of the detainee abuse cases is not denoted by the photos."

"No. I think, again, Mark, as I said, I don't think the -- the existence of the photos doesn't denote -- isn't the only thing that denotes the existence of an investigation."