Editorial note: Today’s post comes to us from the analytical prowess of Caitlin Hill. Caitlin is the managing editor of The Writer’s Center publication Poet Lore, a grad student at American University, and the love of my life for going on seven years.

Undoubtedly we’ve all heard about this by now – a white Irish-American cop in Cambridge arrested an African-American Harvard professor for “breaking into” his own home. The argument on behalf of the officer is that Gates was rude and basically refused to cooperate as much as Crowley would’ve liked (yo mama comments don’t always go a long way in de-escalating a situation). Gates’ argument is fairly straightforward – he was in his own home, and it wouldn’t have escalated to any such level if he were white (also yo mama jokes aren’t actually grounds for arrest).

Then Obama had to reduce a half hr discussion on health care to a 5 second soundbite wherein he said the Cambridge police behaved “stupidly.” And then had to explain himself (I don’t disagree, but I still had a *headdesk* moment when he said it, because it overshadowed policy and gave fodder to the gleeful pundits), and, finally, he invited both Crowley and Gates to the Rose Garden with Joe “the gaffer” Biden for a beer. (An Irish cop drinking a beer? Go on!) Actually, all joking (okay most joking) aside, Gates and Obama both have Irish ancestry as well, as the Irish liked to Thomas Jefferson it up with their female slaves.

Here’s a link to Gates’ comments on the event. If you click on the “Photos from the beer meeting.” link, and proceed to #3, you’ll see a close-up of their beers (you can also just scroll down, cause I’m anything if not accommodating). I attempted to make some generic guesses about type of beer (noting Obama’s weak-colored apple juice choice) and then I clicked to photo #4, to see what they actually had.

Here’s my brief analysis of their drink choices on that day:

Crowley chose Blue Moon – a Belgian White! I wonder if the server poured it correctly. A proper Irishman might be concerned that he would take some guff for drinking a beer infused with orange and coriander, but Crowley knows the spice just means the alcohol goes to the bloodstream quicker, so suck on that (while he sucks on this orange garnish in a manly fashion). Also, it’s got the word “white” on the label just about everywhere, which is a risky choice. If you think I’m stretching here, just know that Blue Moon comes from Canada, and it don’t get much whiter than that.

Obama chose Bud Light – ugh, srsly? and it looks like Biden went along with it. Here’s a few possible reasons why he chose Bud Light – Obama offered to drink beers with the boys to try and recover that whole “I want a President who’s the kinda guy I can see myself having a beer with,” and not because he actually likes beer. Or maybe he’d had so many beers that day that he figured he’d go with the cheap stuff, and Natty was just a LITTLE too obvious. But, I think it’s safer to assume he wanted to go as American as possible and still maintain those 6-pack abs (ironically not achieved by guzzling 6-packs). Bud’s supposed to be one of the most popular beers in America, so Obama figured he’d try to gain ground with the beer-swilling voters. Maybe Biden really does have apple juice… My last supposition is that Obama had some leftovers from his beer pong party with the ambassador to Belgium, wherein he rubbed in the fact that Budweiser didn’t have to sell out to them completely, though they have their own distribution of “Bud” over there, so it was a subtle glove slap.

Gates chose Red Stripe – a Jamaican Lager. According to Wikipedia, “Gates initially said he would have a Red Stripe, but facing criticism from Boston beer fans, he changed his choice to Sam Adams Light.” “The Root” reports he drank Red Stripe. As Gates is editor of “The Root,” I can’t see the info there being incorrect, which makes me doubt this, but, then, the beer does look a little dark for Red Stripe. But, what? Were Boston beer fans hanging over the fence around the Rose Garden voicing their opinion until Gates re-ordered? Or did Gates feel compelled to announce his selection in advance and then got all sorts of hate mail? I would’ve found it fairly hilarious if he had changed to an old white dude beer, but the bottom line is, drinking Red Stripe makes a statement, and I’m more willing to believe it’s just the foliage in the background that makes it look dark, and not a beer change. The beer is Jamaican born (Gates is not, he’s WV born, that’s how you know it’s the beer I’m talking about), has gone through many changes (including a failed effort to appeal to Americans by re-designing the bottle), and is a fairly well-respected beer across the country now. Drinking Red Stripe says: “I come in a squat, brown package and you can’t rebrand me to a ‘Heineken-style green bottle’ to make me more accessible to the American people. Also, I like reggae.”

Bonus – Look at pic 9 – The P and VP reaching for snacks, or a Biden/Obama terrorist fistbump!?

UPDATE: I’ve been informed that Biden was drinking a non-alcoholic beer, which would explain why it so closely resembles Bud Light. Later, Biden would smoke a non-nicotenic cigarette, eat a non-protein protein bar, and work out on an invisible bike.