CAN A
CHEESEBURGER
TRANSFORM A
PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATE?
BY ALICE HINES
ILLUSTRATION BY JESSE LENZ
IN A SINGLE 48-hour period in Ohio last month,
Barack Obama made a show
of ordering or accepting a
staggering array of American
comfort food and drink.
Bacon, eggs, grits, buffalo
wings, ribs, sausage, pepperoni
pizza, iced tea and Miller Lite
were only the start. At a farm, the
President purchased fresh peaches, strawberries, corn and cherries; at a bakery, it was a dozen
chocolate chip cookies and an
entire apple pie. At one café, Kozy
Corners in the village of Oak Harbor, he was photographed sharing strawberry pie and whipped
cream with a young boy.
“People have been commenting I need to gain some weight,”
Obama quipped at a campaign
event in Poland, Ohio the next
day. “I’m skinny but I’m tough.”
The bus tours of Mitt Romney
have so far been decidedly less Dionysian, but the Republican candidate, too, has turned up at suburban Chipotle’s and been seen
spooning his fair share of sundaes
at family ice cream parlors in the
American heartland. Of course,
with so many of these meals pro-