Obama declines arm-wrestling challenge, suggests hoops instead

President’s campaign stop has him drinking a Bud Light at local watering hole.

Politics

US President Barack Obama talks with a patron at Ziggy’s Pub and Restaurant in Amherst, Ohio, on July 5, 2012, during an unannounced visit while on a bus tour of Ohio and Pennslyvania.

JIM WATSON

If President Barack Obama is attempting to paint himself as an everyman, he’s headed in the right direction.

As the president pulled on a cold Bud Light in Ziggy’s Pub in Amherst, Ohio, on Thursday night he happened upon a patron named Jeff Hawks, The Hill reported.

“I’ll arm-wrestle you for your vote,” Hawks said, according to a pool report from the campaign stop.

“No, I’ll play basketball for your vote,” the president replied.

So the dueling challenges reached a stalemate, but Hawks wasn’t finished.

He reminded Obama that he was standing inside a bar with Fox News on the overhead televisions, The Washington Examiner reported.

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That prompted Obama to suggest Hawks request a new channel.

“The customer is always right,” Obama said, according to The Examiner.

Obama spent about an hour in the restaurant with Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D).

He’s on a two-day bus trip through the key swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, CBS News said

The president also asked four school district employees in the bar, “What do I need to know about education?”

“That’s important work,” Obama said.

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