Vice President Joe Biden: foreign policy maven, train enthusiast, expert beer cooler? The Obama 2012 campaign seems to think so, as it is now featuring in its campaign store a beer koozie emblazoned with a smiling Biden, simply saying “Cheers Champ.” It’s not the only lighthearted campaign merchandise on the website– Obama supporters also have the option to purchase, say, a coffee mug with the President’s long-form birth certificate on it– but it may just be the funniest.

Are you ready for the Slurpee to become the new symbol of American unity? Well, the folks at 7-Eleven sure are. USA Today is reporting that the company is chomping at the bit to capitalize on off-handed comments President Obama made about holding a “Slurpee summit” with newly elected Republicans. Can you blame them? Sure, Obama may have lost some of his political power this week, but he’s still a marketing bonanza. If you don’t believe me, just know that two of these were sent to the Mediaite and Geekosystem offices a few weeks back.

Remember those happy days from summer 2009 when the nation’s problems could be solved with a beer summit. They feel very far away right now don’t they. Now, according to a year-long “expert review” the debacle might have been avoided entirely had Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley not both missed “opportunities to de-escalate the situation.”

So it’s the day before Halloween, and you don’t have a costume. What to do? Fortunately, Mediaite has come up with some costume suggestions for you. Pulled straight from the headlines, these are guaranteed to be hits:

As the Obamas settle into their Martha’s Vineyard vacation this evening, the press is out in full force to cover each and every detail. Geraldo Rivera has been on the scene in all weekend – and last night he scored an “unexpected exclusive” with Prof. Henry Louis Gates.

In a short interview while Gates sat on his “kind of a tricycle, kind of bicycle,” the Beer Summit Harvard prof talked health care, Sergeant Crowley and more.

WaPo executive editor Marcus Brauchli has put an end to Mouthpiece Theater, Post staffers Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza‘s satirical web series, Howard Kurtz reported this afternoon. Brauchli was under pressure from groups such as Women, Action and the Media, that took offense at Milbank’s none-too-subtle allusion that, if Clinton were invited to the Beer Summit, she would have chosen to drink “Mad Bitch” beer.

The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank brewed up a mess of trouble for himself, yesterday, when a satirical video he appeared in stepped way over the line. The subject of the video was President Obama’s Thursday “Beer Summit.” But the comment that started all the trouble? Suggesting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have a “Mad Bitch” beer. Ooops.

CNN, 5:32pmET:

Like everyone on cable news today, last night’s Beer Summit was a major topic of conversation. But this chyron on CNN from The Situation Room is either missing a question mark or needs to swap the word “or” for “and.”

In today’s cutthroat media environment, stories break fast and spoil faster. It doesn’t take long to go from big news to scraps of news to contrary opinions that seem cooked up solely for shock value. News Decay charts the strange and rapid declines wrought by the 24-hour news cycle.

So, the President, a cop and a Harvard professor walk into a bar…er, a picnic table. By this point you probably know the rest. Was there other news yesterday? Who knows. The Presidential “it’s not a summit” “Beer Summit” dominated from morning to night.

And while cable took to the story like alcoholics to an open bar, print reporters seemed slightly more apologetic that they were devoting this much energy and attention to it. But devote they did.

In our short three-episode run of Office Hours,the task of finding news-cycle appropriate lead-out music has fallen to me. Last week, in honor of Walter Cronkite, it was “That’s The Way It Is,” by Celine Dion; this week,  in honor of the Beer Summit, I selected “Gin & Juice,” orignally by Snoop Dogg but performed [...]

It’s been a while since the last “Great Moment in Journalism.” But there’s nothing like politics and beer to bring out our next installment.

All the cable news networks have been talking about this upcoming “Beer Summit” taking place at the White House tonight (6pmET! “Red, Light and Blue”!). But only one network took it to the next level – countdown clock.