Forget what you've heard about our commander in chief. President Barack Obama is the coolest president, to borrow a phrase from Kanye West, of all time. This is no undue adulation. This is just how you sum up the man who introduced into the annals of American history the first White House beer. President Obama is truly a man of the people.
It seems the Obamas believe homemade goes way beyond throwing some seeds in the ground to grow your own veggies. They've used their own money (ahem, no taxpayer dollars being spent on alcoholic debauchery) to set up a micro-brewery at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They even use honey straight from hives on the premises to make White House Honey Ale. Go green indeed. The first family practices what it preaches.
And we can throw all that partisan bickering out the window. This is proof positive that the Obama family has a bit more in common with the average American than that pesky elitist title that continues to haunt him. Survey after survey has shown that Americans love their beer; of the 67 percent of residents who imbibe even occasionally, brewskies are the leading beverage choice. Oh yeah, and homebrewing is now a bona fide pastime for American hobbyists. Membership in the American Homebrewers Association has doubled in the past five years.
And lest you worry that our president is sitting around measuring out grain and hops instead of running the country, this is something White House staffers do (yes, they're getting paid ... but they're paid to sit in the house and cook for the first family ANYWAY).
In fact, news about the beer brewed at the nation's most famous home was overshadowed by the naughty food at the Obama's Super Bowl bash (used, naturally, to paint the family as hypocritical ... even as the rest of the country threw out their New Year's diets to eat a bunch of carbs and fat), but it's been around for awhile. The White House ale just got an extra plug when the president shared it with Medal of Honor awardee Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer the other day (who better to get to sit around and drink beer with a president than an American hero, really?).
Put it all together, and the White House beer could be just the stuff to woo voters who want a president who knows what it's like to live their struggles and be like them. Now if only they'd invite us in to have a sample before we hit the polls ...
OK, so it may not change your vote. But doesn't this make the president sound a lot more relatable to the average beer-drinking American?
Image via White House/Flickr