Presenting: The Official Unofficial Drink of the Obama Administration

As we dive head-long into these first 100 days of the Obama administration, we can't help but think of just how whirl-wind the last few months have been - seeing the Obama candidacy become the Obama administration-in-waiting become, as of Noon EST this past Tuesday, the Obama Presidency. By our count, there are 208 Drinking Liberally weeks to go before we do this whole Inauguration thing over again, and we wanted something special to remember this special time by - so we announced our quest for the Official Unofficial Drink of the Obama administration, and opened it up to your suggestions, awaiting some brilliant names and ideas.

And boy, did our chapters deliver - we received many dozen spectacular, hilarious, original, clever, and, even moving Drink recipes sent to us via e-mail, our website, blog comments on Open Left and Daily Kos, and even in-person suggestions. (Let's just say that people can be very open about their ideas at a Drinking Liberally meeting.) Some of you called on Obama's multifaceted heritage, putting together elegant multicultural concoctions which you might think wouldn't work, but do. Others got all punny, asking us to celebrate with humor the fact that Bush was gone and the Obama years had commenced.

It was a tough choice to make (and impossible to try out every recipe personally), but at the end of the day, our main criteria was this: would this be a drink still being prepared on the last day of Obama's first term? Could we imagine people going up to the bar in 2012 and ordering up one of those, y'know, Obama drinks? Would they have to call the bar two months in advance? After much back-and-forth on our part, and listening to the thoughts voiced by our chapter leaders, we decided on:

Obama's Hope Float (or simply The Hope Float - or, alternatively, The Audacity of Hope Float), suggested by our Spartanburg, SC chapter, a refreshing spin on the wholesome Root Beer float containing Baileys, Butterscotch Schnapps, and a float of Creme de Cocoa on top. While it was a tough competition (and a shout-out must go to the Obama Mama, a coconut liquer and Kahlua concoction that came particularly close to snagging the top spot), we wanted to emphasize the populist streak that we hope President Obama continues to demonstrate, and chapter leaders wanted to honor the choice that was easiest among our favorite selections for a well-stocked bar to mix.

So, at tonight's meeting of the original NYC chapter of Drinking Liberally, the first since the end of the Bush years, we'll each be ordering our very own Hope Float - and toasting a sweet hello to a new promise for progress.