Candidates savor New Hampshire ... often for the food

Every four years, Granite Staters are presented a veritable menu of future leaders.

As presidential hopefuls make their way from the Seacoast to the North Country, shaking hands and kissing babies, they speak of lofty ideas and field hard questions. Meanwhile, their staffers are asking an important question of their own: What are we going to eat today?

It may seem a minute detail in the race for the White House, but what and when a candidate eats can have an unexpected influence on a campaign — just ask Gerald Ford and his still-wrapped tamale or John Kerry and his Philly cheesesteak with Swiss.

“I think for local reporters and so forth, it’s something of a form of hazing for candidates. It’s a way for candidates to be put to a test — a fun test, but still a test of sorts — where they try the local specialty,” said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. “Especially because the candidates tend to be so rehearsed, watching them try a local food is a chance for reporters to catch them unaware in a potentially unscripted moment.”

Read more: https://www.unionleader.com/news/politics/candidates-savor-new-hampshire-often-for-the-food/article_4ccab43f-5171-5bc3-a133-e94412ba2193.html