Enough said by me & about it as far as I am concerned. Thanks Mr. Pres. for clearing this up: Obama Shifts Tone on Gates After Mulling Scale of Debate

“I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up,” the president said of the case Friday in the White House briefing room.

From The New York Times:

President Obama tried Friday to defuse a volatile national debate over the arrest of a black Harvard University professor as he acknowledged that his own comments had inflamed tensions and insisted he had not meant to malign the arresting officer.

The Gates case has become the first significant racial controversy Mr. Obama has confronted since being sworn in as the nation’s first African-American president. The improvisational handling of it underscored the delicate challenges for a leader who has tried to govern by crossing old lines and emphasizing commonalities over differences.

And from The Washington Post:

Making a surprise appearance before reporters at the White House, Obama said that he had unwittingly fanned smoldering racial resentment with his response to a question at a news conference Wednesday night.