Back in July, a Facebook post from GOP U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea went quasi-viral as a uniquely silly attempt to project “everyman” appeal: hankering for sushi from the local Denver suburban strip mall, O’Dea saddled up the horses and rode through the suburban streets of southwest Denver to relieve his craving–just like you would if you had horses, more free time than the average working suburbanite, and no regrets about leaving road apples on the roads and sidewalks.

O’Dea tries hard to come off as a relatable ordinary guy, but something about his “goatee and mullet” image has always come off as a bit contrived. Inevitably separated from the travails of everyday life by tens of millions of dollars, it’s no more possible for O’Dea to pretend to be an “ordinary Joe” than Mehmet Oz can fake the experience of shopping for a veggie platter.
This weekend, in a Politico profile of the Colorado U.S. Senate race, it happened again:
In an interview at Spanky’s Roadhouse in Denver, sipping a Michelob Ultra he poured into a glass of ice, [Pols emphasis] O’Dea elaborated on the kind of Republican senator he would be.
Who better to express the revulsion we all should feel than U.S. Senate brewmeister John Hickenlooper:
***poured into a glass of ice*** pic.twitter.com/lNMKUmtnjY
— John Hickenlooper (@Hickenlooper) October 17, 2022
The story has prompted significant debate this morning over which is the greater zymological offense: drinking beer over ice, or drinking Michelob Ultra over ice. Michelob Ultra is only by the very loosest standards considered beer, after all, and once diluted with ice we’re not sure what you would call it. A beer cooler? Whatever it is, we surer than hell wouldn’t drink it.
Joe O’Dea: trying too hard, or not nearly hard enough? Either way, it’s just kind of weird.
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