it is that time of year. we all like to reflect on what s happened. look forward to what s ahead. we have gathered the best, the brightest here at cnn to help us digest all of this. i will go around the table real quick here. host of cnn s new podcast called america s house. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr. jill dougherty. covers foreign fairs at the state department. and jeanne meserve, our homeland security guru. okay, guys. i m going to start this off, kick it off here. this year at the white house. there were would poignant moments notably two african-american women that helped president obama evolve in his leadership. agriculture employee shirley sherrod, you may recall, who was
at the state department, and jeanne meserve is the homeland security guru. all right. guys, i want to start it off and kick it off and this year at the white house there were two poignant moments of two african-american women who helped president obama evolve. you might remember shirley sherrod who was portrayed as racist and then fire and then rehired by the white house and she taught the president to check out the facts and don t shoot from the hip and take on the tough issues. this is what mrs. sherrod said she believes the president ought the do. i do think that whether it is from him or some other way with his administration, we do have to talk about race. we need to talk about race in this country so that we can move beyond where we are now, because we are not in a good place. a month later president obama encountered velma hart at a town