WASHINGTON — Something is brewing in U.S.-Canada relations. And it's on Olympic ice.
President Barack Obama is betting a case of beer with the Canadian prime minister on the outcome of Sunday's U.S.-Canada gold medal game.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama had a case of Yuengling, a Pennsylvania regional brew, riding on the game. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is wagering 24 bottles of Molson. The beer battle pits Canada's oldest brewery against the oldest beer maker in the United States. Molson Canada is now a subsidiary of Molson Coors Brewing Co., a marriage of Molson and Denver-based Coors.
There was no word on where the cross-border exchange would occur.
The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee said at an earlier fundraiser that she would stop some of the booing from the rowdy Philadelphia fans by putting her seven year old daughter, Piper in a Flyers jersey. She said, "How dare they boo Piper!"
So basically Sarah Palin has been reduced to the "human shield" defense.
...Lynn Zinser at her NYT hockey "Slapshot" blog just posted that Sarah Palin, in her much-ballyhooed appearance dropping the puck at the Philly Flyers' opener, was greeted by "resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd." Of course, Fox Sports was more "balanced," observing on its site, "The crowd reacted with a mixture of cheers and boos at her appearance." [I]t's hard to judge because of the music.
But Zinser's post had a lot more in mind: "I would object to this sideshow whichever political party it involved. Having vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin drop the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers’ opener Saturday night was problematic not because it was Palin — Flyers owner Ed Snider’s decision under the flimsy excuse of 'honoring' hockey moms — but because it is injecting politics in a place it should not be." More:
The biggest problem: when Palin came out to onto the Wachovia Center ice Saturday night — greeted by resounding (almost deafening) boos from the Flyers crowd — the the two hockey players who had no choice but to appear with her in that photo op were turned into props in a political campaign. If Rangers center Scott Gomez or Flyers center Mike Richards wanted to make some sort of political statement, that would be fine, but in this case, they were thrust into a situation not of their choosing. Snider put them there with his ill-advised mixing of politics and sports.
The level of discomfort has been palpable for the Rangers’ two Alaska natives, Gomez and Brandon Dubinsky, as they have been asked questions about Palin and the election in recent weeks.
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