Barack Obama faced a tough choice at a downtown Raleigh bar Tuesday.

If Obama had ordered a non-alcoholic beverage at the Raleigh Times Bar, such as unsweetened tea, he might have presented himself as a teetotaling, arugla-chewing lightweight, Michael Biesecker reports.

However, the choice of cold-draught Pabst Blue Ribbon — signature beer of the blue-collar worker — could be viewed as either a down-to-earth choice of a man with simple tastes or a naked pander to the working-class voters courted by Hillary Clinton.

And in the contest to be the candidate voters would most like to share a drink with, Clinton had preemptively set the bar high with shots of Crown Royal whiskey at bar in Indiana last month.

PBR is also the cheapest beer on draft at Raleigh Times, displaying a measure of fiscal conservatism. Though with an $18 tip to the barkeep, Obama made a play for charity as well.

Obama avoided controversy by not selecting the next beer over on the tap. One can only imagine the fun Rush Limbaugh would have had if a Democrat who wants to pull our troops out of Iraq had ordered a beer called Surrender Monkey.

(Not to mention that its 8 percent alcohol content might have hurt his oratorical skills.)

Regardless of what he drank, Obama effectively courted the home of flue-cured tobacco by entering the smoking section first.

Barack Obama's young supporters don't just like him —  they dream about him.

Eighteen-year-old Jenny Logan showed up at the Raleigh Times Bar this afternoon when a friend of her tipped her off that Obama would be there.

An aspiring photographer, she brought her Canon EOS Rebel XT digital camera, although bar owner Greg Hatem had to help Logan — who is 5-foot-2 — actually get a photo of Obama from above the crowd.  

"These aren't normally the kinds of pictures I go for, but I love Barack Obama," she explained.

Logan said that she is a huge fan, even when she's asleep. 

"I had a dream about him one time that we went out to dinner — and here I am," she said. In the dream, they were in a crowded Raleigh restaurant.

"He had a lot of people around him and I just said, 'Thank you for everything you've been doing,'" she said. "And his wife was there too." 

Michelle Obama just breathed a sigh of relief. 

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stopped by the Raleigh Times Bar this afternoon. (Staff video by Robert Willett.)

Barack Obama may come back to North Carolina.

The Democratic presidential candidate's campaign has argued that he would make North Carolina competitive in a general election campaign, but the key question is whether he'll actually return once the primary is over.

During a meet-and-greet with customers at the Raleigh Times Bar this evening, Obama told Dome that he would try to return, but he stopped short of committing to a return visit at this point.

"I definitely would be happy to come back to North Carolina," he said. "I want to see if we can put it in play."

Beth Khalifa faced a quandary this afternoon.

Just as she was about to leave her job as a graphic designer at DesignBox downtown, she heard that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would be coming shortly to the Raleigh Times Bar. The problem was, she hadn't voted yet.

"I had to decide whether to go vote for him or come here and meet him," she said, standing on the sidewalk outside the hip Raleigh watering hole just off Fayetteville Street.

Khalifa, 40, decided voting was more important. She raced to her polling place in Pullen Park, cast her ballot, and then rushed back to the Raleigh Times Bar.

As fate would have it, she arrived just in time.  

"I got to do both," she said, sporting an "I voted" sticker. 

Michelle Obama said her secret to good style on the campaign trail was all about having separates that are easily mixed and matched.

"It's been good to have a bunch of stuff to wear in different ways," she told N&O fashion reporter Samantha Thompson Smith.

On Tuesday afternoon at the Raleigh Times Bar in downtown Raleigh, she wore a off-white-colored knit sweater set and black wide-leg pinstripe pants. She tied the look together with a wide off-white-colored patent leather belt.

That's another one of her style tricks. Belts. "I'm big into belts," she said. "Belts make an outfit more interesting."

Her look on Tuesday was an impromptu outfit and part of the reality of life on the campaign trail. They were the same pants she wore on Monday, she said. But she said she had the dress she planned to wear to Tuesday night's rally already picked out.

Full Disclosure: Smith's fiance owns the Raleigh Times Bar.

Barack Obama made a last-minute, surprise appearance at a downtown bar this afternoon, ordering a Pabst Blue Ribbon and spending half an hour greeting voters.

"Everyone voted?" he hollered, walking up Martin Street as he headed into the smoking section of the Raleigh Times bar around 5:30 p.m., Barb Barrett reports.

He went inside, ordered a draft and tipped bartender Jay Winfrey $18.

"I think he forgot his change," Winfrey joked.

Obama hoisted his beer, took a sip and asked again if everyone had voted. "You've only got two hours!" he said.

As some two dozen journalists crowded around with cameras and notebooks, Obama chatted up voters at the bar, including a fellow in a suit and carpenters Matt Swean, 25, and Craig Evans, 50. 

He greeted the men, asked them what they did for a living.

Swean said later he wasn't planning to vote.

Evans would vote later, he said, but he wouldn't say who for. Asked whether Obama's visit might change his mind, he smiled. "Not really." 

More after the jump.

   Comments (0)

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama stopped by the Ralegh Times Bar in downtown Raleigh for a Pabst Blue Ribbon this afternoon. (Staff video by Sam Wineka)