What are we feeding our candidates?

There has been much said about the recent Iowa caucuses, and I’m generally not inclined to add to the cacophony. I’ve become skeptical of the advantage we give Iowa and New Hampshire in the selecting of our candidates. These states are highly unrepresentative of the rest of the country, both being very rural and far whiter than the rest of the country.

And the primary fixation with these two states has a negative effect on public policy, from ethanol and corn subsidies to a variety of other issues. While states that are neither swing states nor early primary states have few campaign events of their own, many voters in Iowa and New Hampshire won’t consider a candidate they haven’t met personally.

But as I looked through some pictures of the campaign, I think there is an issue that hasn’t gotten enough attention. As the candidates fixate on small towns and events in this one small state, they have to kiss a lot of babies, not to mention quite a few butts, or risk the wrath of the Hawkeyes. Their images are heavily scrutinized, so they must shake hands with everyone, and especially, they must eat all the right things. But from the pictures I saw online, it would seem they’re eating all of the wrong things. Pork seemed to be the most popular item. Nearly all of the candidates seem to have been photographed with a pork chop on a stick in their hands. These include those at the top and bottom of the polls and both sides of the aisle: Clinton, Kasich, Huckabee, Trump, etc.

Trump gave the pork the big thumbs up. Clinton even sported the most euphemistic slogan “Pork, the other white meat” on her apron as she was pictured, apparently helping cook these delights. Female candidates have an additional requirement: they must show how domestic they are, even if they’ve spent their lives in the halls of power rather than the kitchen.

Some of these candidates have had weight loss issues. Jeb Bush is supposedly on the Paleo diet (not one I’d recommend) but he’s destroying some sort of fried item dipped in goo. Huckabee had famously lost weight in the past, then gained some back. But he can’t risk his Iowa image by not indulging. Ben Carson is a surgeon; he must know something about health. So, while he did avoid the fried products, that pizza he was eating isn’t exactly a health food item. Maybe that explains the grimace on his face. Like myself, Chris Christie underwent surgery for weight loss, with some success. But that fried peanut butter and jelly can’t be helping.

It’s not just the pork. It’s root beer, pizza, lemonade, frozen and otherwise, etc. Take a look at the list of items on the web site for the Iowa State Fair: burgers, slushes, wings of various sorts, chicken fried bacon, many things wrapped in bacon and/or pancakes, and more bratwursts and sausages than I can list. I typed in the word “fried” into the fair search engine and got somewhere around 40 results, from fried cheese curds, to pickles, to Oreos.

Though many of us aren’t happy with the choices, one of these people is likely to be our next president. Whoever it turns out to be, we’d like them to be as physically and mentally healthy as possible for what must be one of the most grueling jobs in the world. So, why do we put them through this gastrointestinal gauntlet to prove that they can eat the most unhealthy things on the planet?

——— There were a few interesting things coming out of Iowa that aren’t food related. After an ungodly amount of cash flowed into campaign coffers in the past few years following the Citizens United decision, voters are fed up, not just with the money, but with the moneyed candidates.

On the Democratic side, though the party leadership is trying to anoint Secretary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, a previously little-known Vermont Senator is running a grassroots campaign that resulted in what was essentially a tie.

For the Republicans, Jeb Bush was also anointed and has been flooding early primary and caucus states with ads, none of which seem to have had the desired effect. His campaign has never caught on with voters. Ted Cruz has big money supporters of his own, particularly Texas oil interests, but also has a grassroots campaign with an impressive number of small donations.

But Cruz did something more impressive, and possibly game-changing. He managed to win the Iowa caucuses while opposing ethanol subsidies. Ethanol is supposed to do things for the environment, but probably causes more harm than good. But the lobby behind it is so powerful that it is rare for a candidate on either side of the aisle to stand in opposition. So, here’s to baby steps.