Courting the cookie vote: Obama vs. Romney in the presidential bake-off
Never mind taxes, wars, immigration, same-sex marriage, or global warming 鈥� here鈥檚 a question that is always at stake in any presidential election year: Chocolate Chip or Oatmeal Raisin?聽
Or this year鈥檚 iteration: Mama Kaye鈥檚 White and Dark Chocolate Chip or M&M?
It鈥檚 not quite the Kitchen Debates, but for the past 20 years, Family Circle magazine's Presidential Cookie Bake-off has been a wildly popular sideshow to the presidential election campaign: Which candidate鈥檚 spouse makes a better cookie?
The magazine has sponsored five previous contests in every presidential election year since 1992 when Hillary Clinton and Barbara Bush crossed cookie sheets and went mano-a-mano over Chocolate Chip Oatmeal (Clinton) vs. Chocolate Chip (Bush).聽
It works like this: The candidates鈥� spouses offer up favorite cookie recipes for public consumption. Readers then whip up their own batches and vote on which cookie is tastiest.
This year, bakers can cast their votes for M&M cookies, courtesy of Ann Romney, or Mama Kaye鈥檚 White and Dark Chocolate Chip, from Michelle Obama, through Family Circle鈥檚 Facebook page.
It isn鈥檛 quite like fortune cookies, but the magazine sponsors insist that the winning recipes are surprisingly accurate in their outcomes, predicting the eventual occupants of the White House in every contest with the exception of one: Cindy McCain鈥檚 Oatmeal Butterscotch beat out Michelle Obama鈥檚 Shortbread in the 2008 culinary vote, though the popular vote of course ultimately favored Barack over John.
(Bill Clinton, it should be noted, also got into the game that year (Oatmeal) as Hillary Clinton challenged Mr. Obama in the Democratic primary race.)
And spare us your snarky political assumptions: Democrats 诲辞苍鈥檛 only use vegan, gluten-free, hemp-and-flax, free-range, organic, non-GMO ingredients and Republicans 诲辞苍鈥檛 only use butter, sugar, chocolate, and red-white-and-blue sprinkles.
There have, by the way, been some unusual cookie components in the past, notably: pumpkin puree (for Theresa Heinz Kerry鈥檚 Pumpkin Spice), and white vinegar (Tipper Gore鈥檚 Gingersnaps).聽
