dr. gates but the prosecutors. >> ann, on the other hand -- if it's your house and -- forget racial. it's your house. they're questioning you about your own house. you would be ticked? >> in fact, i have been at least in the initial crankiness by professor gates, i've been somewhat of a defender of his in as much as i'm someone who travels a lot. i get a lot of -- i get cranky, too, especially after a long trip from china. what can't be defended, i think, is the next 48 hours. the next week when he could calm down and think i overreacted. but i think that is a problem. both minorities and females are told to take everything as it's because your black. it's because you're a woman. i don't think that's good for blacks or females. i don't think it's good for the rest of the country. and there is one thing i'd like to say about the studies on racial profiling and even the bush administration coming out with them. the bush administration suppressed the study that disproved eight million studies abou

sounds are coming down because president obama has intervened now to convene sergeant crowley and dr. gates. anguish over whatever happened did not justify handcuffing professor gates from his own house. he felt humiliated. sergeant crowley felt offended. so solving that problem. but the bigger issue about race profiling, if this is a teachable moment, the president, the professor and the police are a small classroom. race profiling should be in its proper perspective because it is such a pervasive problem. >> jonathan capehart wrote an op-ed in today's "washington post" which reads, in part, "the arrest of henry lou business gates jr. sparked another debate on race which i suspect will end as quickly as it began with no clearer understanding of the roots of the racial reactions that fueled it." what do you make of that, reverend? what do you hope will be accomplished if these three sit and talk over beers at the white house? >> since he's dealing with health care which is a great moral subject, the president is grappling with now, black people are number one in infant mortality, race profi

once they felt they had to bring dr. gates out of the house and to handcuff him, i would have thought at that point some adult supervision would've stepped in and said, okay, look, it is his house, let's not take this any further. take the handcuffs off, good night, dr. gates. >> were you ever racially profiled? >> yes, many times. >> larry: did you ever bring anger to it? >> of course. but, you know, anger is best controlled. and sure i got mad. i got mad when -- as a national security adviser to the president of the united states and i went down to meet somebody at reagan national airport and nobody recognized, nobody thought i could possibly be the national security adviser to the president. i was just a black guy at reagan national airport. and it was only when i went up to the counter and said is my guest here who is waiting for me did somebody say oh, you're general powell, it was inconceivable to him that a black guy could be the national security -- >> larry: how do you deal with things like that? >> you suck it up. wh

gates, dr. gates had disturbed the peace and he's in handcuffs. interesting the picture of him in handcuffs shows a black officer in front of him and a hispanic officer there and the charges are dismissed the next day. i read it in my newspaper the next day, it looked just like this short story. but in this 24-hour news environment we're in, it went viral within about 24 hours. it's all over the country, all over the world. then it becomes a federal case when the president feels obliged to say something about it. the president said let this be an opportunity to have teaching done. >> larry: he said it was stupid. >> he said it was stupidity on part of the police force and pulled that back the next day. but then in the next day he said let's make this an opportunity to teach and learn. here's what i get out of it. the two women did what they were supposed to do, sergeant crowley showed up to do what he was supposed to do. the argument that took place between the two of them reminds me of when i was a young infantry company commander and on monday m

certainly dr. gates does and it seems that a trainer, someone who talks about racial profiling all the time, this is a man who understands it as well. they had a bad encounter. and i do believe that the sergeant was wrong to arrest someone for disorderly conduct. however, disorderly conduct has always been a shady area between individual citizens and the police. can you talk back to a police officer. can you, you know, can you refuse their command. but again, all that's lost in all the sound and fury. >> i just want to say though in defense of skip gates' behavior, it was not disorderly conduct. he's demanding what he's allowed to by law, a badge number and name which was refused him. he showed id. yes, skip gates showed some temper. you're dammed right i would but it's not going to happen to me. and that call would not have happened if i were breaking into my house, the incident wouldn't have happened if it were me. it would have diffused almost instantly if it had. that said, i think that you're absolu

i think it's really up to dr. gates about how he wishes to take it forward if at all. >> thank you for joining us. >>> now the bigger picture. there is growing anger of president obama's condemnation of the gates' arrest. more than 1,000 people reacted on politico and most comments went like this. forgive me, but passing judgment without hearing all the facts is acting stupidly. there were a few comments that echoed the traditional viewpoint, quote, there should be no such thing as disorderly conduct in your own home. again, most criticism has been of president obama, not of professor gates. joining us is david wilson. david, on that point, the reaction does seem like the traditional democrat have been flip-flopped. >> what we're seeing on our site is a broad range of opinions about this. we are an african-american site, so there's a lot of diversity of opinion. some are saying that president obama shouldn't have talked without having all the facts and some are seeing his stepping into this as sort of standing up for th

once they felt they had to bring dr. gates out of the house and to handcuff him, i would have thought at that point somebody adult supervision would have stepped in and said okay, look, it is his house. come on. let's not take this any further, take the handcuffs off. good night, dr. gates. >> larry: okay. larry alder is that a sound way to look at it? professor got angry. it was his house. should have gotten -- verbally got outside and police shouldn't have arrested him. >> it's a diplomatic way of looking at it. one might expect from a diplomat i agree gates should not have been arrested. the officers i plained you're trained to take this abuse in the academy and they should walk away. i disagree the pass he gave on skip gates. by gates' own admission he couldn't get into his house because he was the target of a break-in. the officer didn't know if he was the owner of the house. gates plays the race card, saying you're doing this because i'm a black man in america. you don't know who i am. you haven't heard the last of this.

dr. gates likewise. move beyond their anxiety and anger which is on the -- both sides gates feels humiliated, if two of them can get past their pain, this could be a teachable moment led by a crowley hsh gates dialogue unlike the king situation in california. it could be beyond their pain and the sense of humiliation and disrespect used to turn this pain to power and make this a teachable moment for all of america. the issue of profiling is real. the issue of overreacting to black is real. how do we deal with it? everywhere. 2.3 million americans in prison, a million are black. so the data is there and maybe these two men have been exhausted to the position where they, in fact, can offer cool-headed remedy along with the attorney general and, no doubt, the president has now weighed in. it's a genuine, national discussion. >> you know what would be incredible? i'm in the tv business. invite them to come here. the reality is imagine if professor gates and sergeant crowley went on with oprah and had a conve

we've come a long way and dr. gates and the incident reminds us that we still have a long way to go. >> why is it so important that black people know where they come from? i mean a lot of your passion, professor gates, is in making that connection and when people discover who they come from, they freak out. >> you get fired up. you get fired up. i know it did for me. >> what did it do for you? >> it did for me. when he showed me where i came from and the people that came before me, the shoulders that i stand on, my ancestry, it was inspirational to me. now all of you out there in this audience, out there in the audience, tv audience, i strongly recommend that you do the very same thing. no matter how tough things seem to be, if you can look back and see what your ancestors went through and where you came from? you will be much better as a person and you will say, hm. you know? >> why do people have this visceral emotional reaction knowing something that happened being decades prior? >> because our ancestor's systematica

what happened to dr. gates is an outrage. you compound that by the fact that dr. gates in addition to being a great scholar is a friends to the president. as an aide you worry it might take us off. these guys are human, these presidents. he's human. he spoke as a human being. i think he gave voice to what most people would have felt which is that it's outrageous to drag a man out of his home in handcuffs who has proved that he committed no crime. but, when you're the president, and you're there, he was hauled. excuse me, by the way if we're starting to arrest harvard professors which might be a good idea, gates would be way down the list of harvard professors i would arrest. >> he's just not a regular american, he's president of the united states and he put kerosene on the fire here instead of using his authority to dampen things down. barack obama won this election because he put america in a better place. at least he offered us the hope of that in one moment he took us back. now to his credit, by the way that's not good for democrats or republicans or anybody. to

goodnight, dr. gates. >> huh.n capehart, real quick, then we'll move on, what do you make the colin powell weighing in on this, general powell? >> well, i think he's weighing in because larry king asked him, but i also think the general is right, and i think maybe, perhaps, not having spoken to him or being able to get inside his head, but remember, general powell is a republican. and so, we are now hearing from not just an african-american, but a republican coming from the other side. and perhaps he feels that by being a republican, he can maybe bring some folks along who, you know, might not understand why this is such a big deal, maybe that, you know, it's democrats and liberals who only feel the way that professor gates or the president feel. >> well, of course, there's this beer that's scheduled at the white house tomorrow night. and i wonder, i think we're at a place now where we are not sure we will ever know exactly what happened there, and everyone might need to simmer down just a tad bit. moving on, movi

he called dr. gates a friend of his and wanted to make a statement about it. for the last three days, what he thought was going to be a headlong race to get something down in the house has now turned into a real strong debate on racial profiling and police brutality in america. >> what do you hope have happen between this beer meeting? >> you know, it's hard to say, but i think what should happen is both should acknowledge that this has been a distraction for the president. it is a good debate for america to have. ten years ago, there was a march in washington against police brutality and we're still having this discussion and these sort of confrontations that are cultural, that are racial in nature, but this was not one of those incidents. this was just an enforcement incident where two men let their egos get the best of them. >> what happens if the president doesn't get this through before the august recess and how much do you think that time delay helps opponents of the bill? >> i'm not sure i can answer that because opponents may be sort of hindered if the

. >> the surgeon can also be heard on the tape as dr. gates being uncooperative and asking for backup. both men, henry louis gates jr. and officer crowley, will meet the present at the call it -- at the white house this thursday -- will meet the president at the white house this thursday. >> the question you may be asking yourself is what type of beer with the drink? the associated press reports that officer crowley is a fan of bowman. professor gates likes [unintelligible] as for the president, we do not know. the u.s. is in high-level talks with chinese officials here in washington. the president tried to assure china that there will not let the huge budget deficit jeopardize the economy. timothy geithner and secretary state hillary clinton are also taking part in these meetings. we may be one step closer to a health-care compromise in the senate. there would not require businesses to have health care coverage. the compromise would also prevent insured companies denying coverage to any applicant. >> michelle obama promoted her husband's heal

what happened to produce a different outcome was directly under the control of dr. gates. >> reporter: an investigation sundays way to determine what happened when gates was arrested for disorderly conduct. one of the officers at the scene today gave his own account of what he saw. >> i heard him saying this is how a black man is treated in america. and a white woman calls the police and i'm locked up. >> reporter: president obama also called professor gates today to say he would like to meet with both him and officer youly at the white house over a beer. timmon bradley, abc news, new york. >>> cash for clunkers in coming up, find out if your vehicle qualifies for the government program. >>> plus, a consumer group that is suing denny's. why the activists say the restaurant chain is serving up trouble. >>> and a dramatic rescue is caught on tape. how a quick-thinking good samaritan saved a young girl's life. >>> first, we'll head outside and get a check on weather conditions at anne arundel community college where the current temperature is 83 degrees. fios guy! where ya h

. >> dr. gates indicated he will take legal action against cambridge and its police department. his attorney sayst no lyli tno likely. he says all charges have been dropped and the professor will meet with the police officer. that seems unlikely while the city conducts its own investigation. >>> now we turn to some stunning developments in the metro deadly crash. the ntsb revealed the signaling system had been having problems over one year before that june collision. courtney robinson has new details and also details of a major money announcement. >> as the investigation into the deadly crash last month continues, metro is scrutinizing safety. the general manager says discovering more issues with the circuitry system. >> we should look deeper than what we have done before and we should respond much quicker. that is what we are doing. >> the transit agency says writing is still safe despite some of the issues they have come across. -- the transit agency says riding is still safe. >> it has to be done. safety is first. safety should be their first priority. >> lawmakers will take

my first teaching point for young people especially, not dr. gates. when the police are looking into something, if you're involved in it, cooperate, don't make the situation more difficult. i think in this case the situation was made more difficult on the part of the cambridge police department. once they thought to bring him out of the house. i would have thought at that point the adult super vision stepped in and said it is his house. come on. let's not take any further, take the handcuffs off. good night dr. gates. >> larry: okay. larry alder is that a sound way to look at it. professor got angry. should have gotten -- verbally got outside and police shouldn't have arrested him. >> it's a diplomatic way of looking at it. one might expect from a diplomat mat. i agree gates should not have been arrested. the officers i plained you're trained to take this abuse in the economy, we should walk away. i disagree the pass he gave on gates. by gates' own admission he couldn't get in the job because he was target of a break-in. the officer didn't know if he

most feel that based on what they know and what they are hearing that maybe dr. gatesppropriately handled by the police department. but based on what they know. that's the key, getting all the facts and details because if you get some of it, you would think this poor man was unjustly wronged by the police department. however, as sergeant crawley said i simply followed procedures in that context and i think when you have this interchange between to the two americans and emotions begin to raise up from dr. gates and he spoke for the first time last night on cnn with soledad o'brien on his case of what happened and again demanding an apology and we're told that the mayor has called and offered an apology on behalf of the city but he wants an apoll joy from officer crawley himself and said he is contemplating legal action at this point. >> reporter: just a few days ago, the president was speaking before the naacp on their 100th anniversary and he said as much progress as we have made, that there's still the pain of discrimination that is being felt in america and right the

years in south carolina, places where there's a history of these kinds of experiences, and i know dr. gates reacted based upon experiences and the president's went to school and community, reacting for his experiences. i would hope all this would take all this into account and remember we can be no more

i think dr. gates and all of us -- let's assume dr. gates is right about this. he needs to ask himself a question -- what would martin luther king do? would he say he should beg me for my forgiveness and i might give it to him. or should he say i forgive you. the diseases of racism affects all of us. all of us are victims of this. so, you know -- >> i agree. >> you may or may not do something wrong, you have to approach that situation with strength and understanding at the same time. >> he may also see how malcolm x looks at it. skip gates is not dr. king. he is skip gates. he has to look at it from his perspective. and no one else's. >> we're going to leave it there. great discussion as always. thank you, gentlemen. a lot more to see online at ac360.com. a new blog posting from professor watkins. a good read. a complete copy of the arrest report. which is also fascinating to read. >>> breaking news in the michael jackson case. authorities searching a clinic in beverly hills. randi kaye has that. the latest. >>> a new money angle to the tune of millions of dolla

don't think that if the president had made that statement while a case was still pending against dr. gates, that would have been one thing. there was no case. i think where we go from here, i would hope, is i remember and you know, andrea, i was one of those with johnnie cochran that started this whole racial profiling stuff ten years ago in new jersey with the new jersey four case. president clinton and attorney general janet reno convened law enforcement heads, police chiefs from all over the country, and civil rights leaders and civil liberties unions and all and started a dialogue on how we get to a policy that is fair for everyone. that was avoided during the bush years. i would hope maybe attorney general holder and others can bring us back to that discussion where police unions and civil liberty lawyers and civil rights leaders and others can have this discussion independent of this case, because there is no case, andrea. the prosecutor's already dismissed the case. >> do you think there would be some value in the president sitting down with skip gates and sergeant crowley, privatel

and so, this issue of dr. gates being a victim of excessive force and bad judgment is a much bigger subject. >> i think about your face the nigh barack obama was elected and the tears that were streaming down your face, all that you have experienced in the fight for civil rights in this country. and i wonder sometimes, as you have seen all that you have seen, can this one -- i think maybe that this incident shows that life is still even as complicated as it's always been? >> well, again, back to rosa parks, that one case raised the real debate about denial of public accommodations and what it meant and denial of the right to vote. this one case should open up the issue of pervasiveness of race profiling, of the subprime lending struggle. i wish at some point the president would meet with countrywide and wells fargo, for example. most of these subprime housing lending was driven by race profiling, not just the police profiling but judges, for example. and so, this is a teachable moment if we, inform, now address the

dr. gates was arrested last week after suspected burglary was reported at his own home. gates is african american. officer who arrested him is white. on wednesday president obama said the cambridge police acted stupidly. >> i think when the time is right they should make an apology to us. i think the president should make an apology to all of law enforcement personnel throughout the entire country who took offense at this. >> i unfortunately fave an impression that i was may lining the cambridge police department or sergeant crowley specifically and i could have calibrated those words differently. i told this to sergeant crowley. >>reporter: the president also invited professor gates and sergeant crowley to the white house. >>> that brings us to our question of the day. do you think the president comments on the arrest controversy are appropriate? go to our web site and tell us what you think. response might air tonight on the news at 10:00. >>> lots of sunshine today but have we seen the last of the strong storms? jessica star is here now with the first look at the sky w

talking to police officer the way it appears dr. gates did will get you arrested e

who was arrested by cambridge police in his home and he's also invited the officer who arrested dr. gates. the president stepped in the debate last week and he now hopes to settle that controversy. joel brown has a report now from the white house. >> reporter: president obama hopes a round of drinks will turn a political misstep in to a teachable moment. tonight he's bringing harvard professor henry lewis gates, junior and police sergeant crowley to the white house for a talk about race relations over beer. >> the president will drink bud light. professor gaits said he liked red stripe and i believe sergeant crowley mentioned that he likes blue moon. >> reporter: gates accused crowley of racism after he arrested the professor in his home. the sergeant was responding to a report of a possible break in. he says the professor was belligerent and disorderly. >> president obama pushed the story in to a national spotlight after he said in his noose conference last week that the police acted stupidly. two days later he tried to smooth things over. >> my sense is you have got two good people in a

. >> dr. gates is asking for an apology. >> it was the fault of the policeman who couldn't stand a black man standing up for his rights in his face. >> the apology won't come from me. i've done nothing wrong. >> across the country this i want has been heavily debated. >> i understand police have a very difficult job to do, but the members of the police department, once they realize that gates was in his -- that he actually owned the home they were investigating, they should have been able to let cooler heads prevail is even if gates acted a fool. >> he also says gates' experience is not unlike that with african-american men experience every day. >> ironically officer crowley teaches a course to police officers on how to avoid racial profiling. >>> tonight the coast guard is suspending its search for teaching for the 13-year-old maryland boy missing in the ocean at myrtle beach. this afternoon today witnesses say the boy went underwater and never came back up. a massive search by air and water was la

once dr. gates identified himself and he was verified to be the home run. that should have been the end of the situation. police officers are human too. often it is not easy to walk away from a situation where someone is yelling or screaming but it takes a bigger police officer to know when to walk away. >>> michael vick, yesterday i and several of you said he ought to be reinstated but not so fast says this writer. even he has learned a lesson he has no respect for life. we don't need role models like him in professional sports. yes, he has technically paid his debt but he can never be rehabilitated. let him work in a fast food joint. never be rehabilitated? really. that's a tough one. how are you so sure about that? however, i am sure we need your e-mails and the address is mailbag@wusa9.com. that is our report. i'll be right back here tonight along with anita brikman. log on anytime to wusa9.com. we will see you later. bye-bye. captions by: caption colorado, llc 800-775-7838 email: comments@captioncolorado.com ♪ the art of getting dirty. the art of getti

where i live, talking to a police officer the way it appears dr. gatesid will get you arrested every time, no matter your race.

and i know ithat dr. gates reacted based on his experiences. i know that the president, who went to school and community, reacted because of his experiences. i would hope that all of us take all of this into account and remember that we can be no more, no less than what our experiences allow us to be. having said that, i would say that the police officer in this was responding to a call. the question to me was, if this was a neighbor calling, what was the neighbors role in all this? did the police officer take into account that the neighbor may have overreacted? there are so many variables and all of this that i think that nobody is in -- in fighting the police department in cambridge i --ndicting the police department in cambridge. certainly the police officer has a great record. he seemed to me to be a good guy. i think that i am a pretty good guy. would there have been times that i overreacted? that is just over -- human nature. >> that will have in our discussion with house majority whip james clyburn. we will be back with our reporters. mi

. >> as for dr. gates, he said he is considering legal action against the cambridge police department. the charges have been dropped. the mayor has called him and apologize. heading to cleveland today to talk health care. matt brock, abc 7 news. >> thank you. >>> mr. obama did used most of the press conference to answer questions on his health-care plan. debility and security for those with health insurance. the president addressed the uneasiness with the price tag. >> i have pledged help insurance reform will not add to our deficit, and i mean it. we just cannot afford what we're doing right now. >> president obama said 2/3 of the plan could be funded by cutting wasteful spending. the rest must come from higher taxes. >>> metro could soon get $150 million in federal funding. the house is set to vote today. it will be the first $150 million of the $1.5 billion that congress authorized last year. there will be a news conference today to discuss the funding. >>> traffic will be teshfod ifr to a year because

not for dr. gates. but for young people, especially, is when the police are looking into something and if you're involved in it in one way or another, cooperate. don't make the situation more difficult. i think in this case the situation was made more difficult. on the part of the cambridge police department, once they felt they had to bring dr. gates out of the house and to handcuff him, i would have thought at that point some adult supervision would have stepped in and said, look, it is his house. come on. let's not take this any further. take the handcuffs off. good night, dr. gates. >> were you ever rationally profiled? >> more times. >> larry: didn't it ever bring anger? >> of course. anger is best controlled. sure i got mad. i got mad as a national security officer for the president of the united states states. i went down to reagan national airport. no one thought i could possibly be the national security adviser to the president. i was a black guy at the airport. only when i went up to the count

dr. henry gates.been eliminated before the president ever made his remarks last wednesday. >> when we talk about the president, you talk about federal issues and trying to make this federal laws and policies. but the fact is, all politics goes local puch's got to deal with this on a one-on-one, face-to-face basis in the community. how much weight do you put on the fact that the cambridge mayor, the city police there, are trying to put together some sort of forum? do you think that's the kind of starting ground, the root by which we need to get -- >> i think that's a good thing and i think they should do that and i think that they will. but i think the reason you need a federal law is because you can't heal it in cambridge and it jumps up tomorrow in raleigh or in atlanta. there needs to be clear federal guidelines that everyone understands that this is proper policing all over the country. national action network and i have dealt with these matters for the last decade all over the country. there needs

break bread with dr. gates if need be. this is not a rogue cop. this is a real gentleman and a benefit to cambridge. greco was anyone saying anything particularly offensive to another -- greta: was anyone saying anything particularly offensive? >> started calling him a racist and playing the race card, if you will, and all he was trying to do was find out what was going on in that home and making sure there was not an active break-in. greta: was officer -- when they are inside the house or when they had come back out onto the porch? >> my understanding is that it happened initially at the door and then went on inside. there were various references, and when he got outside, he put on a little show, i guess, for the people who were out there. greta: did officer crowley tell you the exact words that he heard? what do you recall? >> "this is what happens to a black man in america." "you are harassing 8." he crossed the line when he brought jimmy's mother into it -- "you are harassing me." mrs. crowly iey is owendd an apology. jimmy's mom is owed an ap

is dr. gates there, my mother would say, which one do you want? laugh laugh. i -- [laughter] i would say okay, mama you can cut that out. i finally told them i was not going to be a doctor and i was terrified. my mother was, she was pointed she said, skippy, everybody knows that is my nickname, skip. skippy we want you to be happy and besides you will be a doctor anyway and i haven't looked back. it's been, it's just been riveting for me. so when i found out when mrs. cash asked me to come and i found out all of these african-americans, i had been walking through the cemetery, i've been here 15 years at harvard. first lived in lexington and then cambridge and i walked past all these african-americans and i didn't know, it made the semiry even more special. and i hope that one of the things we can do, i'm going to end, if i forget, remind me of the virtual tour at the end of my talk, i would hope that maybe we could collaborate between the dubois institute at harvard and cemetery so we can do a virtual tour of the african-american sites in mount auburn cemetery

it wouldn't be appropriate, i think, for me to comment on what happened between dr. gatesgeant crowley. what we should be doing is what do we learn from that? where do we go from here? i think it is important that law enforcement understand that there's segments of our community who are not comfortable with us. but we can't stop right there. we have to also understand that citizens have to understand the community has to understand that the terrific job that law enforcement professionals have across this country. and i think that goes to the first part of the question you ask, you know, what's going on. what's going through a law officer's mind when he is going to that call. you know, a myriad of things. it is going to depend on their background, their experience, have they been to that location before, a host of things the officer is protesting. it is probably in my opinion, i've been doing this for 28 years, probably the toughest job, you know, that you can imagine, going out there, making those types of decisions, dealing with people day in and day out, usually when the

the peoprole fm the community that i've spoken to have been exceptionally stroly in support of dr. gates. what both sides have to understand is that there were mistakes made by both parties. >> what do you say to the critics who say the ones racially profiling were assuming that slgt crowley is being racist because he's a white man? >> i don't see this as having been aissue of racial profiling. is race a factor in everything that we do as law enforcement officers? i will tell you, yes. it's one of the most recognizable attributes of everybody that we stop. you never say i'm out with a male. you always say i'm out with a black male, a white male, a hispanic male, whatever. so it does play a part in just about everything we do. was this is a -- specifically, an issue of racial profiling? i don't think so. >> all right, lieutenant wilson, thank you so much for your time this morning. >> sure. >> how much more to talk about there. ron claiborne has the news. >>> the government has released the worst case for swine flu. the cdc says up to 40% could get the virus within the next two years and

. >>> to the bigger picture, how professor gates' arrest has ignited a national debate. melissa and dr. watkins, a resident scholar at aol black voices and clint van zandt a profiler and the author of "facing down evil." he's also an msnbc analyst. melissa, i would like to start off with you. the president said something today about a teachable moment. at this point have we learned anything, the media and the viewers at home, from this? >> well, i'm not sure. i actually think this is a painfully familiar narrative that is emerging. in other words, we have here a situation where law enforcement, in other words a representative of the state, someone who is armed and in an official position does something to a citizen and then somehow the story becomes as though they are both equal, that gates was doing something bad to the police officer and the police officer bad to gates, but i think we have to keep ourselves carefully focused on the fact that the police officer, sergeant crowley, was a man who was at work, whose responsibility it was to defuse the situation, whereas professor gates wa

. >> reporter: dr. gates, meanwhile have acting for a apology. >> the mistake of a policeman. >> the apology won't come from me. i have done nothing wrong. >> reporter: john hopkins professor lester spence said enough blame to go around. >> i understand that police have a difficult job to do, but the members of the police department once they realized that gates -- he actually owned the home they were investigating, they should have been able to let cooler heads prevail even if gates acted a fool. >> reporter: gates' experience is not unlike what african- american men experience every day he says. >> officer crowley teaches a course to police officers how to avoid racial profiling. >>> governor martin o'malley wants your help cutting back the state budget, the governor needs to cut more than $400 million of state spending and he is asking to you go online and weigh in on what heads to the chopping block. governor o'malley says the only thing not on the table is education funding. so head to www.maryland. gov

dr. robert gates is running the place. the first entry-level person to ever become the agency's director. along the way he has worked with democratic and republican administrations. he has managed to maintain his sanity, his reputation that made a town famous -- in a town made famous by bureaucracy and back fighting. wherhe's done pretty well. its three highest profile positions. cia director. president of texas a&m university. secretary of defense currently. he's helped remake 3 organisation's that were bound y culture. he's done it by listening to people on the frontline. analysts and agents, teachers and students, corporals and colonels. is funded mostly by focusing on the product. he said the national propensity of bureaucracy is not a decision, but to chew the cud until there's no taste at all left. he has chewed up a number of bureaucrats. he's not afraid to make a decision. his ego is not in line with his title. he's not afraid to put himself or his job on the line. at his confirmation hearing in 2006 he told senato

dr. gate's am bridge home said he was being uncooperative and to keep the police cars coming. >>> you can now get federal dollars for the trade in car at the dealership. but the cash for clunkers car program begins the first full week today but 9 news now found that some car dealerships are waiting for the government to give them the green light. >> reporter: at this car dealership on wisconsin avenue, the cash for clunkers program is off to a slow start. >> so far we haven't been able to deliver any vehicles because we haven't received our confirmation number back. >> reporter: customers have applied to trade in their cars but the dealer is waiting for government-issued i.d. to get moving. the program is running better at this gaithersburg car lot where byron is trading in his infiniti. >> i heard about the program. i was in the market for a new car. >> reporter: under the program the federal government will issue $4,500 to the purchase of a new car. >> i'm at the point where i need transmission work done on my infiniti and other maintenance that would have put me at the market so it is

we don't yet know who dr. gates will bring. crowley is the cambridge, massachusetts, police officer who arrested gates at his home after a neighbor thought somebody had been breaking in to that house. the episode turned into a national debate over race. >>> judge sonia sotomayor is now very close to becoming the first latina member of the first supreme court. the senate judiciary committee approved her nomination sending it to the senate for a full vote. only one republican crossed the aisle to vote for her. senator lindsay graham. first time grassley and hatch have ever voted against a nominee. at least nine republicans have said they'll vote against sonia sotomayor for the full senate, in the full senate. they don't seem to have nearly enough support to block her appointment. the 55-year-old would become the first hispanic supreme court justice and only the third woman to sit on the highest court in the land. >>> they say hindsight is always 20/20. were police wrong to taser a man who came out of a public bathroom? what police

. >> i suspect it's because dr. gates is his friend. barack obama is i think maybe the most controlled, careful calculating politician with words that i've ever seen. yet, this time he used a word he himself says he regrets. it's one of the few times he's done that he wasn't trying for laughs. he's had a couple gaffes, made an unfortunate joke about nancy reagan once and so forth. but he hasn't often done that. i think and his friends thing is because the guy was his friend. when you see a picture of your friend, a 58-year-old guy who walks with a cane who had done nothing wrong, arrested, it's going to chap you a little. but the enduring image of this i think is that image of viewing, of the president viewing everybody together, thou shalt be called healer of the breach, and there he was sitting with the cop and the guy who i think very wrongly was arrested. >> there are events, then reactions. the co-chairman of the republican national commit see the trying to talk about this episode. clearly if republicans didn't think it was helping