Friday, January 25, 2008

Bourbon Is Patriotic

What do the good people of New Hampshire have to do now that their primary is over? Why, have a shot of bourbon, of course.

After a recent tasting exercise, Ernesto Burden of the Nashua Telegraph concludes it is "fulfilling a patriotic duty" to imbibe the corn. He explains:

Bourbon is the official spirit of the United States. It is an intrinsically American political drink. FDR, the president who (thank heaven) repealed prohibition, is alleged to have mixed up Manhattans for Winston Churchill. Ulysses S. Grant was a bourbon drinker. There's a story, probably apocryphal, in which Grant's critics visit President Abraham Lincoln to accuse Grant of being a drunk. "I wish you'd find out what brand of whisky he drinks," Lincoln is said to have responded. "I'd like to send a barrel of it to all my generals." Lincoln himself had a license to sell liquor as a young man, and he was born in Kentucky, where his father worked at a distillery.

In addition to the patriotic benefits of drinking bourbon, I can confirm that moderate and responsible consumption of bourbon-based cocktails (such as and especially the Manhattan) can enhance debate and election-night return watching. Makes them into a sort of AFC playoffs party for the politics geek.

Duly noted.

3 comments:

Bridget M. Bush said...

Do you know what distillery Lincoln's father worked for?

R.J. said...

I often hear from Bush loyalist that even though he's indisputably an abject failure, oh well, he did well with the judges. Assuming you're comfortable with an anti American, anti worker, and anti constitutional Supreme Court, this was not a result of Bush's competence but rather him taking whomever he could slip through the door to help promote corporate interest. Harriet Miers anyone? Now, that's what I call leadership! Too funny.

Jake said...

Finally-- something we can all agree on!