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OBAMA BEER SUMMIT, PART II: First, full disclosure: Molson is this humble blogger’s favorite beer brand, second only to its Canadian cousin and rival, Labatt. Such is one’s fate — a fine one, at that — growing up precisely two kilometers from the Great White North’s border with New York state. So it came with, perhaps, an overabundance in interest in learning Sunday night that President First, full disclosure: Molson is this humble blogger’s favorite beer brand, second only to its Canadian cousin and rival, Labatt. Such is one’s fate — a fine one, at that — growing up precisely two kilometers from the Great White North’s border with New York state. So it came with, perhaps, an overabundance in interest in learning Sunday night that President Barack Obama will this week ship a case of Molson Canadian to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper — the spoils of a bet lost on the United States v. Canada Olympic hockey gold medal finals. (Canada won the riveting contest in overtime, 3-2, after the Americans tied the score 2-2 with 24 seconds remaining in regulation.)

Had the United States won the game? Harper would have sent Obama a case of Yuengling , the flagship product of the States’ oldest brewery. Back in July, the last time Obama’s suds selection made news, he opted for Bud Light when hosting a “ beer summit ” involving Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley — parties to a bizarre incident that led to Gates’ arrest and the president’s arguably premature admonishing (on national television) of Crowley.

And for the record, if you’re going to send the prime minister of Canada a Molson product, dial it up a notch and send him a case of Molson Export . Yum.

HEALTH CARE LOBBYISTS STILL VERY MUCH AT IT: Think that just because health care reform legislation is in a holding pattern while the federal government snickers, dickers, dithers and conducts largely fruitless bipartisan meetings that interested lobbyists have just … faded away?

Think again, reports the Washington Post‘s Dan Eggen, who reports the‘s Dan Eggen, who writes Sunday that “another wave of rallies, lobbying efforts and costly advertising campaigns” are underway. The broad health care sector spend an unprecedented amount of money on lobbying in 2009, becoming only one of two business and interest group sectors to ever crack the $500 million mark for one year.

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