Coverage of Gates, Crowley, sharing beer with the President, offers few surprises

(Originally published on Examiner.com)

The cable news networks did not surprise us. The beer chat in the Rose Garden was covered with all the serious intensity of a major summit. Little was said by the participants, in the immediate aftermath, but the White House and police officer involved expressed positive--though muted--messages about the value of the meeting. Prof. Gates and Sgt. Crowley seem to have developed a dialog even if neither is willing to apologize. Reports of the meeting paint a positive picture of a cordial encounter with the potential for continuing good will.

The president probably hopes that the episode is behind him and the country can focus on health care. Time, now, to start looking ahead and move past the encounter--and arrest--that led to a potentially productive discussion of race. The extremists on both sides had their say. Now it's time for more reasoned voices, led by those who shared a brew outside the White House, to move ahead and tackle our national troubles, a little wiser and, perhaps, less polarized than a couple of weeks ago.

Photo caption and credit:

(President Barack Obama, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sergeant James Crowley walk from the Oval Office
to the Rose Garden of the White House, July 30, 2009. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)