The Beer Summit: Race and Reconciliation

Civil rights leaders applauded Barack Obama for saying the Cambridge police "acted stupidly." The police union demanded an apology. President Obama invited Professor Gates and Sergeant Crowley to have "a drink at the end of the day…for a friendly, thoughtful conversation." Crowley says there were no apologies, but no tension either and that "two gentlemen agreed to disagree on a particular issue." A spokesman for Gates says, "The differences are not that far apart… we learned some things and we can make important changes." Did last night's "Beer Summit" start to clear the air about racial profiling? Did it quell the media firestorm over the President's comment? What did it reveal about the leadership style of a former community organizer facing Congressional partisanship and intractable conflicts all over the world?