It's New Beer's Eve: How Do Clinton, McCain, Obama Relate to Beer?

Monday, April 7, is the 75th anniversary of the day that Prohibition was first breached in 1933 by allowing 3.2 percent beer. The 18th Amendment was not fully repealed till December, giving beer an eight-month head start.

Back then, the American beer companies had been suffering from more than a dozen years of Prohibition. It was the genius of the Busch family to dramatize the fact that "beer is back" 75 years ago by yoking together a team of Clydesdale horses to carry beer down Fifth Avenue to the Empire State building, where the horses and beer were met joyfully by the "wet" former New York Governor Al Smith.

In 2004, people surveyed about their preference as a beer-drinking partner picked George W. Bush over John Kerry by 57 percent to 43 percent. Now the National Beer Wholesalers Association's has put this question on its web site -- www.nbwa.org -- for the current presidential candidates. I can report that Barack Obama yesterday was in first place with 45 percent of all votes. McCain was second with 23 percent, Ron Paul was third and Hillary Clinton was fourth.

The problem with this survey, apart from the fact that the respondents are self-selected, is that Hillary Clinton doesn't drink much beer and the other two principal presidential candidates drink hardly any alcohol at all.

Hillary Clinton, according to a waitress named Gina quoted in the Washingtonian, "drinks Kir Royales, Mango Royales, anything with Champagne. Bill is a Grey Goose on the rocks drinker. I've waited on them many times." A Kir Royale is named after the former mayor of Dijon and combines five parts champagne with one part crème de cassis.

John McCain's campaign spokesman Jill Hazelbaker says the senator "very rarely, if ever, drinks alcohol." However, he owes much of his career to beer, specifically Anheuser-Busch, the nation's largest brewery, and its third-largest distributor, Hensley & Co., which gave McCain a PR job 30 years ago in Phoenix, Arizona. McCain married the boss's daughter, Cindy, whose net worth today is estimated at more than $100 million (by prenuptial agreement, almost all in her name, which proved helpful when McCain was investigated during the 1989 Keating Five scandal). McCain's first 1982 run for Congress would hardly have been possible without loans and gifts from the Hensleys, the Anheuser-Busch PAC and Hensley executives -- so much help that the Federal Election Commission required the McCain campaign to return some of the money.

Barack Obama, according to the Washingtonian's bar mole, doesn't drink. "I'd give Obama sparkling water," she says. Yet Obama has had a beer named for him twice. Senator beer in Kenya was so named when he first got elected to the U.S. Senate. Now drinkers of Senator beer are anticipating his promotion and have nicknamed the beer Obama. Ironically, University of Maryland prof Thomas Schaller has predicted Obama will do better in upscale "wine track" states (examples -- New Jersey and Connecticut) than in "beer track" manufacturing states (examples -- Ohio and Pennsylvania).

All of which tells us that none of the three leading presidential candidates is generally likely to "have a beer" with anyone. But maybe today will be an exception.

Comments

[BrianMT]

Somebody must have pointed this out already, but Obama did win Wisconsin. Proudly the beer-drinkin'-est state of them all. Ein Prosit!

[jasonmills]

I wish Billy Carter was still alive. We elected the wrong Carter!

[fightorleave2]

Do you work for the beer industry?

[rosal]

I don't drink, but Hillary and McCan't would drive me to. One is the confused old man, the other, the visit that never leaves. Would really drive you to drink!

[cathye]

Celebrated by going to the local brewery here (Terrapin) and getting one of their custom glasses and sample tickets. While we were there, they got the in-house bottling machine going for the very first time. Previously they had to outsource the bottling to Maryland, but they finally got the capital to invest in a bottling system here in town.

It was a wonderful moment of appreciation for how far we have come, and a beautiful marriage between the small businessman and an ancient tradition.

And damn, that was good beer. Too bad I was designated and had to give half my tickets to my boyfriend.

[LeftRight]

How about we look at the reality of the situation, and NOT waste our time with such a USELESS point of electability!

[JohnFromCensornati]

We *must* analyze the beer data while, at the same time, maintaining the Ron Paul Blackout.

[mamamay]

How about a plain ole soda 7up, coke. pepsi, etc. Many folks do not drink or smoke anymore. So let's just sit right down and have a Pop, soda, soft drink, or what ever you call it these days with your favorite candidate.. That will work.

[StephenJK]

Sure lets contribute to one of the nation's top health crises and knock back a couple of cups of refined, processed sugar! You can keep that liquid sugar.

Considering that two drinks per day is a very healthy thing to do, I'll take my two German wheat beers and I'll toast to that.

[4wehttam]

I'd be honored to have a cup of coffee with Sen Obama since I'm not really a drinker. He is so charismatic, down to earth, so smart and so GENUINE and oh sooo handsome.; but don't tell my husband.

[JohnFromCensornati]

I've got a crush on Hillary.

[popozuda]

When I think of Hillary drinking, it's to drown sorrows, not really a social thing. McCain drinking would probably end with him talking to himself or threatening to kick someone's ass. If Obama had a drink it would be a means to an end. A social commitment or appearance. Something to do to fit in and then leave. He has admitted to smoking reefer and a bit of blow when he could afford it. That's cool with me.

[Wolfgang]

You can't have a beer with McCain because he has anger management problems. He would be a mean drunk which is probably why he doesn't drink. Obama wouldn't drink beer because it is too fattening and also his wife would never give him permission. Hillary looks like she wouldn't mind having a few cold ones. She should have a couple of drinks before she does one of her interviews. She would be more relaxed and come off a lot better.

[mamamay]

McC appears to have too many dementia and alzheimer moments without drinking, i'd be afraid he'd become womanizing and right out want to fight someone as if he reminensces of war. I do not think McC needs to drink or he should also sign up for rehab classes along with the anger management classes. This would keep him and his mind busy. Whew! Hil may need to drink now and then to tolerate slick willie, but I don' think Michelle or Obama are drinkers at all. They are too level headed to twist up their minds which would interfere with their child raising days.

[StephenJK]

You want to see what McCain would be like after a few at the local tavern?

Do a search on youtube for: Tourettes Guy

Yeah, he's my hero too.

[AgathaX]

I've been baffled by people who suggest that Obama is the sort of person you would have a beer with rather than elect. Obama strikes me as the sort of person that might go for a beer at 7 pm with staff, stay for about 35 minutes (max) and then say he has to go. And he'd probably talk about work--or something closely related thereto, while he was there. He might talk about sports, but I don't see him a good conversationalist generally. He'd get off a couple of zingers, and be friendly and amusing while he was there. But he strikes me as the sort of person that is always getting back to work, or going to work out, or spending time with his family. He does not strike me at all as the sort of person to hang out with. I bet he doesn't drink much. Not so much because he is against drinking as much as he would just consider that he has better things to do. I'd like to know more about Obama's eating, drinking and socializing habits. I hope they are not too puritanical.

I bet having a drink or two with Axelrod would be a good time though.

[robXdion]

That's a good description of his type. But to be a leader you have to sacrifice the "good times".

[jsarets]

I'd prefer coffee, cannabis, and some sort of sweet pastry with Obama. I admit that Hillary Clinton in a public place after too much liquor could get interesting, but I wouldn't ever want to drink with her. With McCain, it would have to be Bourbon, preferably an Old Fashioned (rimshot).

Bush quit alcohol (due to alcoholism) before running for president. When he wants to be seen drinking a beer, it's always a non-alcoholic beer with the label carefully removed by some aide. If I was to sit down with Bush, it would be porterhouse steaks.

[klondiker]

The whole McCain not drinking alcohol is a bunch of BS.

Read Maureen Dowd's column in today's NYT.

[Stirner]

The social and political damage done by the 18th amendment was appreciated after its repeal. Today, even our Presidential candidates are applauded for having a beer. Ah, but what of the expensive and oppressive "War on Drugs" ? Well now, be assured that this war will continue forever. Why? Well even Obama, Hillary and McCain well know the reasons, such as the Mob likes a tax-free monopoly, the liquor industry likes to be the only legal drug, the myriad governmental narcs and narc agency bureaucrats enjoy living on our tax-money, the prison industry folks who well know that more cells = more jobs, and such political saints as Obama, Hillary and McCain see it as a ready-made moralizing issue, and in this are joined by folks (e.g., Evangelicals) who wake up every morning worried that someone, somewhere, might be enjoying themselves. Ron Paul, the only voice of reason in the race, would decriminalize drug use -- but not to worry, he will not be heard.

[JohnFromCensornati]

I don't want to drink a beer with wRong Paul, but I would smoke a doobie with him.

[LawDem]

I was at a Chicago pub called Garrett Ripley's (on N. Clark St.) in February and the barman said Obama used to come in there all the time and have a pint.

[JAJ2007]

Obama was drinking beer when he was doing his bus tour in PA.

He drank a Yuengling at a Sports Bar in Latrobe (that's a local mid-Atlantic brand) - but was concerned that it might be a "designer" beer, so he's not totally familiar with local beer brands all over the country. He also drank a beer (brand unknown) when he went bowling in Altoona.

[Zhonni]

That is a photo op my friend. They all do that. He also fed a calve.

[mamamay]

Thats okay. I once attended a wine tasting party and I don't drink but, I smelled each one, then I put the wine on my a bit of cheese before i ate it. I had a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the folks. It is not what you do, it is how, when and where you do it. Obama is level headed, educated and smart like a lot of us folks. He knows the boundaries and the parameters to be a good sport.

[AmbivalentGuy]

Yuengling!
I only get that when my extended family meets in the Outer Banks!

Two traditions while we're there- stock up Yuengling, and drive up and down from Kitty Hawk hitting the raw bars and looking for the perfect bloody mary.