Friday, May 16, 2008 6:09am EST
Make this your Home Page | RSS 
This bud's for you
Staff Reporter | Posted May 3, 2008 1:41 PM
Just when we thought the presidential campaign couldn't get any sillier, along come images and video of Senator Barack Obama downing a beer. Yes we've seen both candidates drinking beer before, and beer drinkers are reportedly an important subgroup of the blue-collar constituency that a candidate needs to win in Indiana. But do you really want to have a beer with your next president?
Newsweek magazine says Obama has a "Bubba gap," a reference to his weaker performance among working-class voters than among "educated" voters.
Here's how reporter Andrew Romano described Obama's beer drinking detour on Friday: "Visiting VFW Post 1954 in North Liberty, Ind. yesterday evening for a 'mix and mingle' photo op, Obama suddenly had nothing but booze on the brain. 'I'm going to see if I might get a beer in there,' he announced, unprovoked, as he strode through the parking lot--with an armada of pool photographers in tow. Arriving inside, the senator immediately told the crowd why he'd come: 'I'm not going to give a speech or anything, I just want to stop by ... and maybe get a beer as well.' Still, he managed to shake a few hands--before abruptly noticing that the cameramen were 'blocking the bartender.' 'I'm going to have a Bud,' he declared."
It's not unusual for a politician to have a beer on the campaign trail, but Romano says that Obama's photo op may look a bit hypocritical. Last month in Pittsburgh, the candidate seemed to criticize Hillary Clinton for staging her own beer drinking photo op.
"Around election time, the candidates can't do enough for you," he said then. "They'll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer."
Both candidates seem to go back and forth on the all-important beer issue. Although Clinton was tossing down the beer in Pennsylvania last month, the month before she was challenging the whole beer drinking test for the presidency. "We need to know as specifically as possible what our next president intends to do," she said then. "We don't need a leap of faith, we don't need to have a beer with the next president, we had that president," she said.
So both candidates are walking a fine line to try to get the votes of beer drinkers without looking too much like they're pandering. But just in case anyone had any doubt that the Obama campaign wanted the blue collar beer drinking image out there, several pictures of the candidate and can were posted on the candidate's Flickr photo page.
The Flickr page also featured recent pictures of the candidate shooting hoops, passing out pies, and sitting down with senior citizens. All in the name of democracy.
- Clinton's new message: I've got the white vote (40 comments)
- An obituary for the Clinton campaign (37 comments)
- What our TV series means for the black community (28 comments)
- Take It To The Finish Line (25 comments)
- Here we go again... (23 comments)
-
Purl Gurl commented on This bud's for you:
Mrs. Mavis Gibson speaks some truth, "I just wish these so called politicians would deal with real ... -
Mrs Mavis Gibson commented on This bud's for you:
Ostend Street, beer or shots of whatever Hill/Billy were putting back is all for a show, just like b... -
Purl Gurl commented on This bud's for you:
If Obama was truly a sharp and a savvy politician, when finished with his beer, he would have smashe... -
Ostend Street commented on This bud's for you:
One thing is definitely true ----- you cannot class up a can of beer. In fact beer pilsners hardly h... -
carby commented on This bud's for you:
Obama has the political skills of a gnat! Who holds their beer with their fingertips...that's a win...
May 3, 2008 2:33 PM
A Daily Voice staff reporter asks,
"But do you really want to have a beer with your next president?"
No. With our next president, sitting in the Oval Office with her, I want to sip American brut champagne while nibbling on organically grown strawberries; I am an elitist savage American Indian.
Might work better if Clinton and Obama cop a J then light up, much like Billy Clinton did years back, except for the "I didn't inhale" part.
However, I don't like dope. I don't like getting stoned. I don't use drugs. I would rather get drunk on champagne. No hypocrisy there.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
May 3, 2008 5:44 PM
Barack is my guy.
May 3, 2008 9:31 PM
This is like the "baby kissing" syndrome: It's part and parcel of political theater.
[aside]
When we cease to distinguish between poetry and prose, between metaphor and logic, between intuition and scientific method, between package and contents, between (blind) obedience and (self) discipline, then we are fooled and abused. Education that facilitates such distinctions is the foundation of this republic, and any hope for liberty.
[/aside]
I acknowledge that the State of Florida has been summarily disenfranchised, yet if we could only sit down over a couple of Land Shark beers...
May 4, 2008 6:03 AM
Anyone know how Hillary's horse did in the Kentucky Derby yesterday? Hillary said she was sending her daughter Chelsea to the Derby and they were placing their bet, their money on a horse named, "Eight Belles".
How did Hillary's horse do? What was the name of the winner by the way?
May 4, 2008 2:47 PM
Obama has the political skills of a gnat!
Who holds their beer with their fingertips...that's a wineglass hold not a beer hold.
What a fraud.
May 4, 2008 4:36 PM
One thing is definitely true ----- you cannot class up a can of beer. In fact beer pilsners hardly help either. A can of beer is a can of beer.
May 4, 2008 9:13 PM
If Obama was truly a sharp and a savvy politician, when finished with his beer, he would have smashed the can upon his forehead. Now this would win the votes of redneck white America.
Same for Clinton. When she downed her beer and her whiskey chaser, she should have let rip a loud belly rumbling belch, followed by a grin.
McCain, truthfully, I don't think the boy knows how to drink. McCain could at least occasionally scratch his butt in public to show he is a typical man.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation
May 5, 2008 11:36 AM
Ostend Street, beer or shots of whatever Hill/Billy were putting back is all for a show, just like bowling for O and HRC thinking she was Annie Oakley with a gun to get a vote. I just wish these so called politicians would deal with real issues and stop with the phony photo op's.
May 5, 2008 12:15 PM
Mrs. Mavis Gibson speaks some truth,
"I just wish these so called politicians would deal with real issues and stop with the phony photo op's."
Rather annoying and rather comical, yes?
I feel rejected and dejected. I am a red skinned woman. To win my vote, I want to see those candidates smearing war paint on their faces, want to see feathers and beads in their hair, want to see each naked except for a loin cloth. I want them each build a campfire then whoop, holler and dance in circles around their campfire while wearing nothing but a loin cloth.
Well, McCain, no, I would really rather not see him naked and wearing a loin cloth. Cindy McCain, yes, I would be interested to see her naked and wearing a loin cloth; she is a handsome woman as is Michelle Obama.
Maybe Hillary, Cindy and Michelle could get together and stage perform a Las Vegas style half naked cancan dance for America.
Billy Clinton, no, not really interested in seeing him wearing nothing but a loin cloth. A lot, a way lot of women have already seen him up close and naked, sans loin cloth. No thrill there.
What really annoys me is so many Americans fall for this photo op media crap. How could so many people be so gullible to not see through this transparency of playing basketball, drinking beer and whiskey along with firing off Wild West six shooters?
Personally, I would rather watch reruns of "Amos & Andy" or reruns of "I Love Lucy" than to watch those candidates make fools of themselves and make fools of Americans.
Those foolish candidates will have my attention when they begin displaying naked truth.
Okpulot Taha
Choctaw Nation