Mostly the blog entry is a repost of various news tidbits, but the lead-in was particularly unbecoming:
According to The NY Post, President Obama is greasing the voting process a bit with some libations at the White House for lawmakers who are considering his stimulus bill.The NY Post article was a bit more benign, though it did show this picture of Obama raising a pint (of what I believe was PBR, from a campaign stop in North Carolina during the primaries), an image which Huffington echoed with this pic, which is rumored to have been snapped at PA's Bethlehem Brew Works.
Anyway, apparently the article was previously titled "Boozing for Bipartisanship," but the title has since been changed. The implication of the lead-in to the article is that Obama is getting GOP candidates drunk so they'll vote for his stimulus package. Turns out there will be 11 Dems and 11 GOPers at the meeting -- a few too many witnesses if Obama is planning on beer-rolling Republicans into consent.
I think the implication is offensive. So what if members of both parties are going to discuss their ideas over drinks? Do you, blogger, have information that any of these 23 politicians behaves badly around alcohol? Or that there is some kind of conspiracy to get the GOP liquored up and make them sign things in return for the opportunity to suck tequila out of an intern's bellybutton?
Come on. What's next? Obama spikes GOP's Malt Liquor with rufinol? Let's show some journalistic integrity here. Obama drinks. So do lots of politicians. And until we have reason to judge their drinking habits, let's replace phrases like "greasing the voting process a bit" with their factual counterparts.
It's called being social. Get over it.
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1 comment:
Thanks for a great post!
The picture WAS taken at the Bethlehem Brew Works, and the President was drinking a Fegley's ESB, a medal winner from the World Beer Championships.
I think we have to understand the fascination that folks have with the President's drinking has a lot to do with the fact that George W. Bush did not drink at all--and was completely distanced from any drinking culture altogether--and for the last 8 years we have never had an image of our President and a glass of anything.
I am profoundly grateful that President Obama seems to be a beer man, and not a wine guy. PBR sounds good to me on a hot day (it's winning loads of awards, and the Pabst Brewmaster is a guest at our Allentown Brew Works locations every now and then)! And the President jovially said of our ESB "Now that's a good beer! That's Good Stuff!"
You can find more photos of President Barack Obama's beer drinking visit to our brewery on our web site:
www.thebrewworks.com
Michael Fegley
Allentown & Bethlehem Brew Works, PA
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