PUBLIC OPINION > Not Everyone Wants to Share a Beer With Obama

During a three-day Iowa bus tour, President Obama revealed that his bus was stocked with a special White House-brewed beer. The beer reportedly comes in two varieties -- light and dark -- and the President admitted he does drink it. Not much else was said on the subject, but we wanted to know how much of the public would crack a bottle with Obama.


Almost half of respondents would turn down Obama's brew. Obviously, there are going to be some telling demographics on this one, but first let's take a blind peek at some of the responses. A lot of comments suggested the reason they would (or wouldn't) partake is that they do (or don't) like beer. But there were also people who simply refused to associate with Obama. One respondent wrote, "As long as it's free."

Conservative Boycott

The strongest correlation, by far, was political alignment. There was a lot of resistance from the right. Part of it might be due to the way the story has been circulated -- that this is "Obama's beer." But more often than not, it was an opportunity to say that even beer cannot win them over. Conservatives were as willing to turn it down as liberals were to partake.

Drinking Doesn't Change Much

Believe it or not, whether or not people drink didn't have much to do with the results after all. Drinkers were more likely to join the president, but only by about 8%. We were actually surprised to see that 47% of nondrinkers were willing to have a beer with Obama, implying that a "nondrinker" is likely to be someone who will drink on occasion.

Drinking Age

Well, there's some good news and some bad news on the drinking front. The good news is, teens were 20% less likely than the 18-24 crowd to want to share a beer with Obama. And since young people tend to lean left, that's even more significant. It means young people are hesitant to consume alcohol. However, nearly half of teens would still do it.

If you'd like to vote on this question, dig deeper into the demographics, or engage in existing discussion about the topic, visit our poll about White House beer. We'd love to hear from you!