Beer: is there anything it can’t do?
Ghost of Dude 
President Obama, Dr. Henry Gates, and Sgt. James Crowley of the Caimbridge police will meet over a beer  (link opens new window) on Thursday, presumably to talk race relations.
After the whole flap about Gates’ arrest and Obama’s comment afterwards, the president has taken a completely different tack than right-wingnut pundits expected. He invited his friend and the officer who arrested them over for a beer. While I preemptively agree with the president’s detractors that this is a PR move, you have to admit it’s a brilliant one. It wasn’t a statement issued and read at a press conference, not a half-assed apology, just a simple meeting over mankind’s favorite beverage.
Now, I wonder if an invitation to have a beer would get me out of my next speeding ticket…