Poll: Having a beer with a candidate.

You often hear people say that voters will go for a candidate whom they'd like to have a beer with for some reason, and that's the way they'll wind up voting.  In 2004, slightly more voters seemed to want to have a beer with a recovering alcoholic than a stiff drink with a stiff Democrat—and we wound up with a president who's really someone to drink about!

So the question is, among the current round of primary candidates, who would you most like to have a beer with?  That's not to say whom you'd want to vote for, necessarily, unless they do happen to be the same person.  Myself, I support John Edwards for the nomination, but I think Joe "Loose Cannon" Biden would be a lot of fun to have a beer with.  He's got a caustic wit and he's cranky enough to make good conversation.  He speaks his mind, and if he thought I was a dork, he'd probably say so, and say so in a way that would make me glad to hear it.  All his TV appearances that I've seen, especially the footage of him doing retail politics in Iowa on C-SPAN, have convinced me that if he was ever in one of my local bars in Watertown, I'd gladly buy him a Sam Adams or two.

So below I've listed the candidates, and I'll ask you to vote, and to explain why you're choosing whom you're choosing.  I'm even including Willard "Mitt" Romney on the list, even though he doesn't drink.  And I know there are sixteen candidates between the two major parties right now, but since there are only fifteen slots in the poll form, I had to bump someone.  Sorry, Alan Keyes!

Also, if there's anyone out there who actually has had a beer with a presidential candidate, I'd like to hear about it!

•  Obama

  Obama has the sharpest intellect of the lot of them, and has led an interesting life.  

  Anyway, with Edwards I fear we'd have to drink Bud or Miller in a faux demonstration of working-class chic, and I can't stand that swill.

  by DemInLux on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 06:58:16 AM PDT

  •  de gustibus, but....

    I kind of doubt that a sharp intellect is at or near the top of the list for most people when they think of desirable qualities in someone to have a brewsky with.    An interesting life, definitely a desirable trait in this regard. But a lot of these guys have had interesting lives and longer ones too.  I'd vote for Obama among the lot of them... but a good drinking mate? nah!

    by TomY on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:05:24 AM PDT

•  Bill Richardson, but if he is not available

  then I'd join you and Joe Biden.  I would be curious to what makes Richardson laugh, as he seems to have a quirky sense of humor.  That's always good in a man and woman for that matter.

  by JFinNe on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:05:59 AM PDT

  •  asdf

    I was thinking Bill Richardson or Joe Biden too.  Mostly because of their experience and who they have had contact with.  

    Another problem I find with most of the candidates is the message management.  I don't feel like I am getting the real person when it comes to most of them.  They all have managers who tell them what to say or not to say and who to talk to, etc.  I know this is the way they have to be to get elected in our current shallow society, but it still does not sit well with me.  I am always wondering what they really think.

    by BDA in VA on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:15:56 AM PDT

•  I would like to have a beer...

  ...with Giuliani. I have met him a few times as a fellow opera-lover.

  by jack rance on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:10:36 AM PDT

•  Joe Biden.

  I'd love to have a beer with Biden if I could get a word in. He just seems like a fella who'd have some good stories about romancing the ladies while he was in college.

  by brooklynbadboy on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:11:12 AM PDT

•  Williard (Mitt) Romney

  Because then I'd have something to hold over his head, telling him I'd be paying a visit to his bishop if he didn't submit to my will.

  - Albert Einstein

  by Walt starr on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:15:23 AM PDT

•  Nobody--I don't drink

  And in one of the oddest PR coups of the last deacade, the ability to promote Bush as a guy you'd like to have a beer with is just phenomenal because, allegedly, he doesn't drink.
  He is in no sense a recovering alcoholic" in almosty any sense--a r.a. has to admit he has a problem and Bush never has...ever. He only waves it all off as "youthful indescretions" and with the eager help of a phenomenally lapdog press, has never been seriously confronted with any of his "indiscretions."

  But if you mean by that who would I like to have coffee with or maybe sit and have a friendly chat with, no political, out of all of them I'd go with Dodd or Biden. There's lots of history I'd like to talk about with them.

  by exlrrp on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:29:46 AM PDT

  •  Bush still drinks

    There have been various photos in the European news showing him drinking.  I remember one was beer on the table in front of him while meeting with Putin, and it seems like there was another when he was in Germany or something, and I recall something about Bush drinking in Texas but there was no photo to prove that one.

    by theboz on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:47:20 AM PDT

•  Gravel sounds like the most fun to hang out with

  by mightymouse on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:31:21 AM PDT

  •  Mike Gravel is a magical old elf.

    I wouldn't mind having a beer with him, either.

    His Santa thing isn't surprising, considering that he lives closer to the North Pole than any other candidate.

    by Larry McAwful on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:38:09 AM PDT

    •  He would be fabulous choice if for no

      other reason than he was in Congress back in the days when it worked reasonably well. And his solution to Bush's temper tantrums was priceless, talk about tough love!

      by snackdoodle on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:35:48 AM PDT

  •  Rudy has A Gay Old Time now and then

    He gets to dress up and meet some fabulous people
    Sharing an apartment with gay people? And having a mistress while youre wife lives in gracie Mansion?? What a zany guy!!

    Too bad he's such a dickhead.

    by exlrrp on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:42:42 AM PDT

    •  with Rudy narcotics may be necessary

      a beer won't cut it.

      by mightymouse on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 07:51:59 AM PDT

•  I already had chats with

  John Edwards and Barack Obama before they were running. I'd prefer a repeat visit with Edwards.

  I'd LOVE to meet Sen. Clinton since she is my Senator but her office never could tell me when/where she'd be meeting constituents at public events........

  For meeting over BEER, I gotta vote for Gravel because I'm a history buff and have lots of questions about the 1970s.

  I'm curious to sniff Fred Thompson to see what the hell Tweety was going on about.......

  I'd love to meet Dodd and Richardson.

  Finally, if there's anybody on the list I'd like to grill over beer it's Rev. Gov. Huckabee because I have some messages from Jesus for him.

  by LNK on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:09:16 AM PDT

  •  about Obama

    as you're lucky enough to have had met the man, could you tell me if he comes across as a bit stiff, or even a bit uptight, in person?

    I ask this in point of curiosity as, though I'd vote him, I'm a little bit disappointed in his impromptu public speaking.  He strikes, sometimes at least, as just slightly nervous, unsure of himself. For example, he has what I see as tell-tale gesturing with hands, and he often strikes me as if he realizes he hasn't captured quite the bon mot but has to plow ahead.  Is it just a wrong impression I have. I guess I should address this to one of the overtly hardcore Obama supporters but it just happens to occur to me as I am reading thru the comments here on this favorite topic of beer....

    by TomY on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:18:07 AM PDT

    •  about Obama in person....

      He came across rather like John Kerry did when I met him back around 1994 and like Al Gore who I met briefly last year....personally shy/introverted, yes a bit uptight and quite stiff......

      Obama didn't seem unsure of himself so much as he seemed uncomfortable with his role of being a public figure and therefore having to deal with the common people and/or people at random.  

      Keep in mind, I met Barack Obama just before he entered the Senate.

      He was in an elevated mood from the afterglow of the Dem Convention speech that was received so well....and he indicated that the approval he was getting from otherwise glum-faced Secret Service guys, policemen, etc. had great meaning to him.

      My strong feeling when I met him then was that he would make a good university chancellor--the kind of job that would suit his interests and personality-- and that he should knock around and rub up against a wider range of people and issues before running for higher office.

      He said at the time that he was in no way ready to run for President. . . .that he was going to be the most junior or the second most junior member of the Senate, but he already felt the pull of public clamor.

      The second time I met him he was campaigning for someone else and seemed a wee bit more seasoned about being mobbed by crowds like a rock star.

      I do agree with what you say about being disappointed with Obama's impromptu speaking. I really don't think he's hit his stride at all when it comes to communicating but I'm not sure why. He measures out his responses in a way that reminds me of something he said when I met him....about the danger he felt in taking on the role of 'Big Man' (African style) where everybody expects you can do big things for them, and tear you down if you can't.  I started to see him as a deliverer of the bad news about what you can't get rather than the Kennedy brothers style of opening things up.

      Now, JFK's speechwriter and intellectual blood bank, Ted Sorensen has endorsed Obama...saying that Obama makes decisions the way JFK did--by getting a wide variety of inputs and then making his own decision.

      Sorry not to be more articulate. I can't express myself well unless I can pull faces and wave my hands in the air!

      by LNK on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 09:17:53 AM PDT

    •  I met him,

      oddly enough, in the security line in the Denver airport in October '06. I presume he was in the area campaigning for one of the local candidates. He wasn't a bit stiff: quite the contrary. He was friendly, chatty, good-natured. Shook hands, asked me where I was going, what I was up to, etc. It may be naive to think so (or not) but he looked at you like he really was interested. I think he has the same ability folks used to allude to with JFK: when he spoke to you he made you feel like you were the only person in the room. He was so approachable, in fact, that I did something I never do with 'celebrities:' asked him for an autograph for my grandson. He was happy to so so and inscribed it to him, with the note "Dream big dreams!" So I think he'd be fun to have a beer with, although after reading the recent article in Sports Illustrated what I'd really like to do is play a little one-on-one hoops with him.

      by mainer on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 09:18:10 AM PDT

•  I'd have to go with Biden.

  He's hilarious, to begin with, and just think of the stories he has.

  by arielle on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:18:52 AM PDT

•  It was a hard choice and actually multiple

  choices would have helped, LOL. I picked Dennis Kucinich mostly because I've had enough agrevation this run up to Iowa and would just like to spend some quality time with a real progressive.

  The person I should have picked was John Edwards, I need to know about how he thinks his health care plan will work and why I just am not thrilled with it. I would also like to discuss with him judgement and why I should believe his being sorry for his Iraq war vote means he won't make stupid and ill advised choices as president. See I'm of the opinion good judgement is something one is born with,  not to say one can't learn from their mistakes, just that you have to stub your toe BEFORE the lesson is learned.

  Then if I am feeling combative I would love to discuss real religion with Mr. Smiley, Mike Huckabee.

  by snackdoodle on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 08:33:59 AM PDT

•  I just want to clarify my choice

  I picked Mitt.

  Not because he's any guy I'd want to shoot the bull with, no.

  I want to have a beer with Mitt because, if he downed a frosty beverage with me, I will have won his soul away from the Mormon church.

  Kind of like the two Mormon boys in our office at Ft. Meade...when I was done with them, they were swilling jug wine like hippies at a rock festival.

  Muahahahaha!

  by xenubarb on Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 09:05:43 AM PDT