Saturday, September 6, 2008

Food Faux Pas: McCain Snubs Wisconsin Dairy, Orders Frou Frou “Watermelon Sorbet”


What seemed like a typical campaign stop in small town Wisconsin, turned into a show of “privileged class” tastes and nobility.

At a packed Cedarburg street rally Friday, the GOP ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin used their first post-convention campaign stop to promise a war on special-interest influence and excessive partisanship in Washington, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

McCain and Palin ducked into The Chocolate Factory to greet people. "I've got to get the moose tracks, please," said Palin at the counter. She was given a waffle cone with a giant scoop.

The Senator asked for a recommendation and then decided on watermelon sorbet.
In this bastion of Republican devotees, and oblivious to the working class farmers struggling to eek out a living due to costly energy prices, McCain ordered a watermelon sorbet; an elitist water and sugar concoction that uses neither Wisconsin milk or beer. Watermelon? Sorry John, that’s Oklahoma’s official state vegetable.

Cindy McCain ordered a “brownie,” another aristocratic slight to the plebeian class of dairy farmers everywhere.

Strangely, the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel glossed over this arrogant back handed sneer to our states economic engine. Could there be a double standard and reverence to McCain by a conservative media ? They didn’t have a problem in the past.

Food faux pas have plagued presidential candidates in the past. On a 1976 visit to Texas, Gerald Ford bit into a tamale with the corn husk still on. He lost the election to Jimmy Carter. In 2003, Mass. Sen. John Kerry was labeled effete when he ordered a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss instead of the usual Cheez Whiz topping.

Sen. Obama's chief message strategist Robert Gibbs served as Sen. Kerry's press secretary during the cheesesteak debacle. A few days later at the Iowa State Fair, famous for its deep-fried Twinkies and beer booths, Gibbs noticed Sen. Kerry buying a $4 strawberry smoothie. He made a frantic call to other campaign staffers: "Somebody get a f-ing corn dog in his hand -- now!

Sen. Obama has quit smoking. Some voters say that even this adds to Sen. Obama's somewhat superhuman persona. "I mean, really, who quits smoking and doesn't gain any weight?" says 30-year-old Stella Metsovas, an Obama supporter in Laguna Beach, Calif.
Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

Am I being picky and just creating an issue where there is none? I don’t think so. Just look at the issues fans in Cedarburg, Wisconsin thought important enough to wave on their hand held signs.

Fans held signs that celebrated Palin's feistiness and mocked Democrat Barack Obama: "Arugula v. Caribou." "Mack and Barracuda."

I’ve got some of my own: “McCain’s Dairy-error,” “McCain Sorbet,” “Johnny Melon Seed McCain” and “McCain Disses Dairy.” And for Cindy McCain: “Heck of a Job Brownie,” “Cindy Stole Recipe for Success.” (the last slogan is unrelated but I liked it)

A NOTE OF SUBSTANCE: McCain briefly touched on "tough times" facing job-seekers in Wisconsin and across the U.S. and promised better job training. Of course, that’s after the fact, and does nothing to prevent the job losses. It’s funny how no one seems to hold McCain’s feet to the fire on the loss of American jobs, settling instead for the emotionally traumatic non-solution, retraining.

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