{"id":1392,"date":"2011-05-23T21:33:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T03:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tombedell.com\/?p=1392"},"modified":"2015-03-18T21:31:17","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T03:31:17","slug":"obamalikestheblackstuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/1392\/obamalikestheblackstuff","title":{"rendered":"O&#8217;Bama Likes the Black Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"US President Barack Obama Downs A Pint!!\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qa-VWxRQfSQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>[May 23, 2011]<\/em> My greatest wish, I thought, was that someday I might get a chance to play golf with President Barack Obama, the golf nut. Now I realize that what I\u2019d really like to do is have a beer with President Barack Obama, the beer geek.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, technically, I suppose what I\u2019d really like to do is play golf with the President and then have a beer with the guy. But if only one of these dreams could come true, I\u2019d happily settle for lifting a pint with the man who has to be one of our greatest beer-drinking Presidents.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not talking quantity here. I\u2019m talking panache, a man who likes a good beer and isn\u2019t ashamed to show it. I\u2019ve written about this before (<a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/golf\/lifestyle\/1228\/tap-beer-of-the-week-church-brew-works-2000-trippel\/\" target=\"_blank\">most recently here<\/a>), but the President reaffirmed the fact today with a triumphal visit to Ireland. He included a stop at Moneygall, home of his great great great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, and where he lifted a pint of Guinness with (among many others) Henry Healy, his eighth cousin.<\/p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/moneygall-hayes.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1395\" src=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/moneygall-hayes.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/moneygall-hayes.jpg 400w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/moneygall-hayes-90x60.jpg 90w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>\n<p>Now, I recommended that the President do this as long ago as February 2010 (see <a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/golf\/personalities\/158\/my-breakfast-with-the-president\/\" target=\"_blank\">My Breakfast With the President<\/a>), and it pleases me to see that he\u2019s taking close note of my counsel.<\/p>\n<p>I guess he couldn\u2019t work out a golf game in Ireland, or even spend a night there; he had scheduled a stay in Dublin, but Iceland\u2019s spewing volcano scuttled that plan. Barack did run into Padraig Harrington however, waiting backstage after the President\u2019s speech to a crowd of about 25,000 in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>During the speech, the President said, \u201cI\u2019m Barack Obama, from the Moneygall Obamas, and I\u2019ve come home to find the apostrophe that we lost somewhere along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>President O\u2019Bama met with Irish President Mary McAleese in Dublin, and like President John F. Kennedy before him, planted a tree in a garden at the rear of the presidential home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/BO-with-a-pint.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1400\" src=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/BO-with-a-pint.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"386\" height=\"423\" \/><\/a>More impressively, back in the Ollie Hayes pub in Moneygall, Obama had downed his pint of Guinness in four gulps. (Take that, Tim Pawlenty!) An AP report quoted government clerical worker Christy O\u2019Sullivan as marveling at the feat: \u201c&#8221;The president actually killed his pint! He gets my vote. He&#8217;s the first president I&#8217;ve actually seen drink the black stuff like he&#8217;s not ashamed of\u00a0something.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, the President waited for the pour to settle, as did the First Lady, who downed a half-pint, and later moved behind the bar to try her hand at pulling a few pints. No word on whether she added the shamrock flourish or not. (If it came to it, I\u2019d happily settle for having a beer with Michelle. Just for the record.)<\/p>\n<p>There are only about 300 souls populating Moneygall, but there\u2019s a good chance Obama shook hands or hugged every one of them. Only about 35 to 40 made it into the pub, but spirits were clearly high as the lifting of the pint moment arrived.<\/p>\n<p>According to the always entertaining<a href=\"http:\/\/obamafoodorama.blogspot.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Obama Foodorama<\/a>, the Beer Drinker-in-Chief also laid some money on the bar and said, \u201cI just want you to know the President pays his bar tab.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another good reason for drinking with him!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[May 23, 2011] My greatest wish, I thought, was that someday I might get a chance to play golf with&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/lifestyle\/1392\/obamalikestheblackstuff\" title=\"ReadO&#8217;Bama Likes the Black Stuff\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[939,18],"tags":[816,867,1460,6019,6022,8872,8873,1971,671,8875,672,675],"class_list":["post-1392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beer-on-tap","category-lifestyle","tag-stout","tag-iceland","tag-guinness","tag-michelle-obama","tag-obama-foodorama","tag-padraigharrington","tag-blackstuff","tag-dublin","tag-barack-obama","tag-moneygall","tag-mary-mcaleese","tag-president"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2011\/05\/moneygall-hayes.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1392"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5941,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1392\/revisions\/5941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}