Knocking 'em back with Hillary

If Hillary Rodham Clinton makes it to the White House, we know one thing that will be on the daily agenda: The return of the cocktail hour.

The current top resident of 1600 Pennsylvania doesn't drink anymore, and there have been other teetotalers in the White House. But many of our presidents were known for their cocktail preferences. George Washington ran his own distillery. John Adams started his day with hard cider. Thomas Jefferson even introduced the presidential cocktail party.

In later years, Franklin D. Roosevelt quickly mixed up a martini -- the real kind, with gin -- to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. John F. Kennedy regularly served daiquiris aboard the presidential yacht. Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon both enjoyed drinking Scotch.

Now we have Senators Barack Obama and John McCain, the likely contenders for the office in November, each of whom has the occasional drink. But Clinton makes no bones about enjoying her drinks more than they do, and likes them neat, as this photo -- one of a series taken aboard her plane by the Associated Press and made available here in slideshow format -- shows after a campaign stop in South Dakota this week.

Clinton also made news a few weeks ago when she had a shot of whiskey and a beer with some members of the public during a campaign stop in Indiana, but this is the first time she let her hair down with reporters.

This time, she showed the good political sense to avoid the Canadian whiskey offered to her in Indiana -- Crown Royal, to be specific -- and enjoyed a shot of Maker's Mark bourbon from Kentucky, U.S. of A.

Here's a video of her Indiana outing:



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