At about 5:30 (Eastern), Sen. Obama walked into a Raleigh bar which is across from the local paper and within easy reach of most North Carolina station's Raleigh bureau, where he purchased a Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap. He sipped the beer as he mingled with the growing crowd for about half an hour, then he worked the neighboring sidewalk for fifteen minutes and left the area about midway through the six o'clock news.

Now, I don't know where he's staying and the bar could only be a couple of blocks from his hotel, but his rally this evening is on the NC State campus and possibly two miles from the watering hole. Perhaps he didn't choose the bar because of its proximity to media outlets or because it's in an area with likely pedestrian traffic; Maybe he even enjoys drinking Pabst, but the whole thing strikes me as a photo-op for the evening news and where the photo would go immediately onto the web.

And, this is not to say that such a display is somehow bad; It's politics and that's how the game is played.