Second ever first efforts image challenge: Food as "safe" regionalism

This pitch is going to have a long windup, so bear with me. I promise that the end result will be some much-needed diversion for those of you who, like me, are ready for this election to be over so that you no longer need to lie awake at night worrying that fivethirtyeight has somehow gotten it horribly wrong. 

This week we rhetoric folks hosted our beloved friend and colleague Vanessa Beasley. In keeping with Illinois tradition, we put her to work. Vanessa met with Professor Murphy's grad seminar, participated (with Murphy and our political science colleague, Brian Gaines) in a wonderful IPRH panel on rhetoric, politics, and the election, met with folks from our colleague Scott Althaus's political communication seminar, and ended her visit last night by meeting with the Rhetorical Studies Reading Group. Thanks to our lively discussion of a selection of Vanessa's published work, I got an idea for the "second ever first efforts image challenge." (See here for the history of the first ever first efforts image challenge).

One of the essays we read was Vanessa's 2001 QJS piece about presidents and local addresses. Vanessa argues in this essay that presidents from 1885 to 1992 used the local address - speeches delivered around the U.S. - to, in part, manage American pluralism in safe ways. Vanessa found that presidents manage American diversity by promoting "occupationalism" (i.e., value of different kinds of work/jobs); by promoting partisanship; and by promoting regionalism. Although Vanessa offers examples where presidents used regionalism well, there are bad ways to promote regionalism; we have seen this kind with McCain-Palin in the last few weeks -- e.g., declaring that northern Virginians are liberal socialist hippie freaks while southwestern Virginians are "real Americans." Obama's "clinging to guns and religion" comment would certainly fall into the bad form of regionalism as well. 

During the discussion, it hit me that perhaps the safest visual or performative way for a president or candidate to promote regionalism is food. Think about it: President X or Candidate Y goes to the Iowa State Fair. S/he looks at the giant vegetables, talks to some folks, to be sure, but s/he also eats something. Eats a lot of somethings. One promotes regionalism by eating that region's food. Here's John McCain at the Iowa State Fair this past summer, eatin' a pork chop on a stick and lookin' oh-so-happy to be there:

 

Finally, here's the pitch (I told you it would be a long windup): Go forth and find more images of presidents, candidates, and regional food. Post links in the comments section, and/or email images directly to me (credit info is also helpful). You have until Election Day, when I'll post all the images I've received as a slide show.

Awards (virtual ones) will go to the person who locates the oldest image and also to the person whose image contains the most unusual food item.

[image credit: Steve Pope, Getty Images: Aug. 8, 2008: "Sen. John McCain eats a pork chop on a stick during a campaign stop with wife at the Iowa State Fair Friday, in Des Moines, Iowa"]

Comments

[Brett]

What about president *as* regional food?

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/images/ga/GAPLApeanut3.jpg

[caraf]

Oh yeah! Now that's what I'm talkin' about!

[dhawhee]

I'm so sad I missed Professor B! As penance, and in homage to where I was, I offer this: http://www.alumni.psu.edu/VRPennState/VirtualAmbassador/images03/clinton.gif

[Vince]

Does this qualify as Bill Clinton eating local food?
http://www.jibjab.com/view/145837

[V]

Thanks for the lovely time together, First Efforts. It was a terrific visit in so many ways, not the least of which was a certain home-baked treat each evening.

Speaking of food, does an entry qualify if the food imagery is beautifully constructed through language vs. photography?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E07E0DB1130F930A3575AC0A9669C8B63

And that will teach you, Mr. Lazio, now won't it?

[caraf]

OK by me, esp. any article that uses the phrase "sausage encounter"...yikes!

[V]

Precisely. But as Freud said, sometimes a sausage encounter is just a sausage encounter....or something like that.

[Troy]

Here's an interesting picture.

http://www.seraphicpress.com/archives/2008/04/cant_i_just_eat.php

The commentary on the site is scary, though.

[Tom Benson]

1969 - Nelson Rockefeller, Governor of New York, visits Nathan's on the campaign trail. Rockefeller states: 'No man can hope to get elected in New York State, without being photographed eating hot dogs at Nathan's Famous.'

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=191226658

See also Obama

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/Obama%20hot%20dog%20July%204%202008%20Butte%20MT%20-%20AP.jpg

[Tom Benson]

When Bill Clinton visited Penn State in the 90s to speak at the graduate school commencement (where he shook every graduate's hand) he also made a stop at the famous Creamery for Penn State ice cream. He violated fixed tradition by having TWO scoops, of DIFFERENT flavors, one of which was, of course, Peachey Paterno. I was there. He at the cone while shaking hands with the crowd at the rope line.

[Brett]

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=efb74ec4ac10a830_landing
John Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson eating tapioca(?)

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=a116c77ee389e1eb_landing
Goldwater at the dairy

http://www.johnmariani.com/archive/2006/060611/gerald_ford_tamale_shrunk.jpg
Ford eating a tamale

http://images.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/story.jpg
Reagan eating McDonald’s

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=c8c7a1527ca5e8c0_landing
Theodore Roosevelt at the chuck wagon

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=e975d57ac3e46381_landing
Dewey eating cake

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=e4fb2ef8af9f610f_landing
McGovern eats toast

http://tbn0.google.com/hosted/images/c?q=809b1ab56a72eeb9_landing
Nixon’s corny boxed lunch

[caraf]

Brett: Bummer, a bunch of these image URLs don't work - can you send me the photos via email? I want to see McGovern eat toast!

[Brett]

What a drag. The images that aren't loading are all LIFE images. I'll send them along.

[V]

From Roderick P. Hart's Campaign Talk: Why Elections are Good for Us (Princeton UP, 2000), page 11:

"In the United States, at least, political candidates eat a great deal of bad food as they move from locale to locale, and that is an important, even necessary, kind of civic indigestion. It signals a willingness to embrace the expanse of the citizenry, to use its separate histories to find its common future. And so when voters roust themselves out of their slumber on those quadrennial November mornings, something sacred happens. Modern cynicism aside, a democrat must learn to love those moments."