I enjoyed this great transition from a great American tradition (racial profiling) to a great American tradition (patriotic consumerism) courtesy of NPR's All Things Considered today:
Daniel Schorr: [...] And marking Black History Month, the president's attorney general, Eric Holder, called the United States "a nation of cowards" for not confronting the issue of race.
All this is part of the backdrop Thursday night as the president clinks beer glasses with the black professor and the white cop who, by coincidence, is the one who briefed his colleagues on avoiding racial profiling.
But perhaps Obama need not wade into every racially charged conflict. After the Cambridge, Mass., affair, the president searches for teachables. Could I address a first teachable to Obama?
Remember, Mr. President, that you are the president, and when faced with an emotionally laden encounter, you cannot afford to act on your visceral reactions.
Or, to put it briefly, don't do something. Just stand there.
[This blank part is the good bit. Enjoy the segue!]
Presenter: More importantly, what will each man be drinking? Reportedly the President will have a Bud; Professor Gates, Red Stripe; and Sgt Crowley, Blue Moon. None chose the beer associated with Boston, and that is Sam Adams. We have Jim Koch on the line -- he's the founder of the Boston Beer Company, the brewery that makes Sam Adams. Welcome to the program.
Koch: It's a pleasure to be with you.
Presenter: Sadly they didn't choose your beer.
Koch: Well, I -- that's okay. I think I was hoping, along with hundreds of other American breweries, that American beers would be chosen at the White House rather than, you know, beers that were owned by big foreign global conglomerates. But I'm at least happy that they're getting together, they're having a beer -- beer has, since the founding of the Republic, been this glue that held us together way back when Sam Adams was plotting the revolution in the taverns over a beer, or Thomas Jefferson was sitting at Queenshead Tavern in Philadelphia, drafting the Declaration of Independence over an American brew.
Presenter: This has been referred to as a "teachable moment" -- the President called it that -- and if you were asked to make a special beer for this summit, a teachable beer, what would it be?
Koch: You know, I think I'd make a blend of ingredients from all over the world, which is certainly what's represented there with the three participants...