Look. We get it. The president gave his coffee salute, The Semper Latte, just days ago, recent enough to use for National Coffee Day jokes from dusk ’til decaf. But aren’t we missing an opportunity here? An opportunity to exploit presidential optical delusion the press hasn’t driven into the ground at all (say, like burying a pitching wedge an inch behind the ball and chunking it 40 yards down the fairway).
And disregarding the homophone of tea for a moment, President Barack Obama really is too often an equal-opportunity caffeinator. A cursory search of my inbox finds multiple instances when he was said to have enjoyed tea. “He tested coffee and tea from small cups and talked to one employee about roasting (emphasis mine)” during a July visit to a Kansas City cafe, an occasion on which his confidence was shaken by an offer of lavender tea. “Somebody is going to bring out my tea so that I don’t get hoarse,” he joked during a speech nine days before. “POTUS got hot tea, his guest said her coffee was enough,” a White House pool report during the president’s July visit to Austin, Texas read. That’s three confirmed tea sightings in 20 days. One might say he’d make a fine guest at a tea party, would the company not find him such a damn socialist.
He will dine with the prime minister of India Monday evening. Something tells me they won’t be sipping espresso.
No, the president is not a National Coffee Day type of person. Even if the point of this post is to assess his caffeine habits, which it isn’t, there’s a body of evidence just convincing enough that his periodic escapes to Starbucks aren’t indicative of fidelity to coffee.
And here’s one more: Why pay for a cup of joe when you have one as your vice president? Biden provides free refills for entire presidential terms.
