President’s beer choice may say a lot

Tonight President Barack Obama will meet with a black Harvard professor and the white police officer who arrested him two weeks ago. The trio will discuss the incident and race relations over a beer at a picnic table behind the White House. Yesterday, the White House revealed which kind of beer each man has requested. Professor Henry Louis Gates has asked for a Red Stripe. Sgt. James Crowley wants a Blue Moon. The President ordered a Bud Light.

I find the President’s choice interesting. Surely it has to be somewhat calculated. Most things done by any Commander-in-Chief are. So did he pick the right brew? I’m not sure.

Mr. Obama surely had to pick a domestic beer, so an Anheuser-Busch product would be safe, right? Yes, except the company was sold to Belgian brewer InBev last year. So while A-B products are still domestic, they are owned by a foreign company. So there’s a bit of a beer blunder right there for the President, but we’ll let it go, as Anheuser-Busch and its Budweiser line are the most recognizable names in American beer. That being said, I think the President would’ve been better off choosing Budweiser, instead of Bud Light. It’s perceived as a manlier beer, and let’s be honest, this whole beer summit is the brainchild of Sgt. Crowley, and surely intended to be a symbol of how real men settle problems. Of course Crowley chose a beer you drink with an orange slice, so that kinda bursts the manly man bubble for the summit. But back to Bud Light, which is often the choice of women who like it as a lighter alternative to Budweiser, folks who don’t really like the taste of beer and folks who you want to drink a whole lot of beer. I’m assuming the President is not planning on doing some binge drinking tonight, but based on the shots I saw of him during the campaign drinking beer in bowling alleys and bars as he tried to woo the common man, I’m not sure he’s a big beer guy.

Were I advising the President on his choice of beverage for tonight, I would have pointed him to two other beers with a little more political symbolism. Sam Adams would have been a good choice on a couple of levels. First of all, it’s named for one of America’s founding father. It’s also a Boston beer. That would’ve been a nice way to host a couple of guys from Cambridge. The problem is, I think Sam Adams Boston Lager, while politically smart, tastes rather disgusting. So that would lead me to the other option: Yeungling. Sam Adams traces its roots to colonial times. Yeungling isn’t that old, but the Pottsville, PA, brewery has been in constant operation since 1829. That’s a bit of Americana. It’s also a beer of the working class. It’s usually cheap and doesn’t carry the pretention of some bigger names.

So President Obama did OK in his choice, but he could’ve done better. Of course, maybe he just likes Bud Light.

So what do you think? Post a comment and let us know which beer you would have picked for the President.