So, I’ve avoided the Gates/Obama/Crowley thing because, frankly, it seems like a sideshow the media likes because it is easy and cheap to report, pushes emotional buttons, and captures eyeballs for their advertisers. But, now I’m hearing something that made me perk up a bit — the participants have agreed to have a beer together. But each gets to pick their own beer.
So, you have to pick a beer and the whole world is watching. What do you do? What *Do* You Do? I’ve heard that the beers will break down as follow:
Obama: Bud Light
Gates: Red Stripe
Crowley: Blue Moon
Hoo boy. Cheap (but not cheap enough), mass produced Belgian-Brazilian swill; expensive Jamaican swill; and a fruity beer. Perhaps I’ve been overly optimistic when I’ve dismissed cries about the fall of society.
In my mind, there are two ways to go with this decision — and, really, it’s a fork in the road that presents itself when I’m making my beer selections as well. Either you go full on with the cheap swill factor, or you pick a really finely crafted beer. On the one hand, you get value & volume. On the other hand, you get quality. All of these gentlemen have made selections which provides none of these virtues.
Really, is there a real difference between Natural Light and Bud Light other than the price and advertising? And, while I enjoy the occasional Natural Light, if I were the President, I’d feel a need to avoid picking something brewed by a Belgian/Brazilian conglomerate. As long as you’re down in the swill, go with something more or less American like Old Milwaukee, Pabst, or — Chicago boy that he is — Old Style. (Or Yuengling if the Pabst brewing company’s use of other brewer’s production facilities is a disqualification).
And, if quality is what you’re gunning for, pick up a nice craft brew. I’m a Hoosier, so I’d go for something from 3 Floyds or Oaken Barrel or the Lafayette Brewing Co. Surely there is something nice in their localities.
Bud Light. Pah! And, here I thought Obama was our *cool* President.
You are such a beer snob.
Is that even possible?
roflmao
Can I be a beer snob *and* enjoy Natural Light & Old Milwaukee? I think it’s just paying for more expensive swill that really gets me going.
Those two are “classics” and fall under a special nostalgia category.
If Obama had a “craft” beer I’m sure he’d get the same kind of flack he got for liking arugula & “spicy” mustard. Elitist!
Old Style woulda been spot on, but I’d’a like to’ve seen the President go for Yuengling, just so that idiot Cornell professor–the one who tried to give him grief for asking for dijon mustard–could have written a thousand-word denunciation of Obama for ordering a Chinese beer. Then twenty more posts explaining how he was still right anyway.
I agree with Glenn. Just thinking of the news if Obama got anything other than a Bud/Bud Light/All American Lager would have dwarfed the Dijon Mustard stories.
The two people I’m most dissapointed in are the Officer and the Professor. Seriously, the President can have beer from any vendor and you two idiots go for a mass produced monstrsosity?
Blech.
Makes me want to go over to the Rathskellar and order me a Paulaner Salvator.
What ever happened to single-malt scotch? I thought that’s what men of power and influence drank.
How long until the National Review criticizes him for picking Bud Light instead of plain old Budweiser?
Goose Island would have been a good choice for Obama; it’s from his hometown, and is better than the mass-produced stuff, but is pretty widely available.
XKCD had a nice take on this:
http://xkcd.com/617/
For maybe the second time in history, Doghouse and I agree. Yuengling and the “Chinese” rant would have been priceless.
Looks like Gates actually drank a Sam Adams Light, at least according to the Chicago Sun-Times and the BBC.
The only one of the bunch to drink an American brew and one from his hometown…sort of.