Barack Obama Gates

Now that he's reverted to his conciliator mode by inviting Gates and Crowley over for a brew, Obama is playing to his strength. For the American beer industry this could be a great moment.

For all Monday's talk of power, and successfully ending the "war on terror" in Afghanistan, the significance was less the obvious signals of being "muscular" than of an attempt to be flexible and, yes, multilateralist.

WASHINGTON — A senior adviser to Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that the Democrat might see Defense Secretary Robert Gates as a candidate to re...