It seems as if there was an official liquid for President Obama’s three-day tour of the state.
The president’s Wednesday afternoon rally was held in front of the old Dubuque Star Brewery. On Monday night, Obama ordered a Bud Light when he stopped at the State Fair’s main beer tent.
“I had a pork chop and a beer,” Obama told a crowd in Waterloo the next night. “And it was good.”
On Tuesday morning, a curious customer at the coffee shop Obama visited in Knoxville asked about the beer that’s made in the White House. A bottle of the “home brew” was fetched from the big black bus Obama’s been riding in — and that man went home with a White House Honey Ale.
On Tuesday evening Obama stopped by a Cedar Falls sports bar and got a draft beer. A campaign film crew was on hand to capture Obama chatting with the customers in the bar. Drake University political science professor Dennis Goldford says the president’s campaign team is shooting to leave an impression with voters.
“Generally when we talk about politicians having a common touch…we ask: ‘Is this somebody you’d like to have a beer with?'”
Goldford says such symbolism is worth a thousand words in a political campaign.
“The president, of course, is portrayed by his opponents of being very much of an elitist, over-educated, Ivy Leaguer, so to spend a lot of time having a beer with folks is a symbolic way in trying to show you are just a regular guy,” Goldford says.
An email from the Republican National Committee on Wednesday evening featured what it called a “chaser” to Obama’s “Iowa Beer Edition” — citing a remark Obama made in 2008 about then-rival Hillary Clinton. Obama warned of candidates who “come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer.”
AUDIO of Henderson report