From the Billings Gazette’s coverage of Barack Obama’s visit to Butte:

America is a “shining beacon” that all the world looks toward for its independence and freedom, he said, and it’s time to come together to reinforce that ideal.

With that, Obama ended his brief speech and declared: “Now, I’m going to go and have a hot dog.”

Hot dogs seem to be a staple of Obama’s campaign food…

Seems a lot more graceful than John McCain, at the least.

Of course, in the end, both will have to answer to a higher authority.

President Bush meeting today with President Arroyo of the Philippines:

“I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the — of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House.”

First course, the appetizer, was dog food:

“The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they’d take it off the shelf,” said retiring Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), who chaired the NRCC for four years earlier this decade.

Now he’s moved on to the main course, human food:

Hundreds of grass-roots organizations, including food banks, supported the legislation. The National Farmers Union rallied more than 1,000 organizations in favor of the override.

“Although it’s pork to most of the country, it’s prime rib to the farm belt,” Davis said.

Good to see Hillary Clinton getting in the, well, spirit of things.

From The Swamp:

Beginning the final weekend of campaigning before Tuesday’s primary in Kentucky where she is heavily favored against Democratic frontrunner Sen. Barack Obama, Clinton held an outdoor picnic rally for about 1,000 people on the grounds of the Maker’s Mark Distillery, the oldest operating bourbon distillery in the world and a national historic landmark.
…

Clinton made the remarks after taking a photo-op tour of the distillery’s bourbon bottling operation, where she met with workers and, after donning goggles, rubber sleeves and gloves, she engaged in the tourist ritual of hand dipping the neck of the bottle into red wax. A good strong putty knife would be needed to open the bottle she produced.

“It was very interesting,” Clinton said, adding that she had never realized each bottle was individually hand dipped. After learning that it the mother of Bill Samuels Jr., the distillery’s president, who came up with the idea of sealing the bottle in wax, Clinton told the crowd later that she “felt like I was in a long line of people who appreciate craftsmanship and artistry and it was a joy to be part of that.”

“I think they’re going to give me the bottle because it dripped some,” she said. “I’ll get to take that one home, which is not a hardship, you’ve got to admit. There’s some benefits for running for president, every so often.”

Wonder if Hillary also thought about bringing something home from the distillery’s cigar division.  Nah, probably a bad idea in that house.

On the presidential campaign trail, most candidates go through the motions of eating all sorts of local foods thrust in their face.  A polite smile often masks a queasy stomach.

For Libertarian candidate Bob Barr, there wasn’t even a polite smile.

This …

prompts this:

Seems that one person’s smut is another person’s morning latte.

A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee.

The Resistance says the new image “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.”

Smut?  Slut?  Dice?  That explains it.  We’ve been wondering what ever happened to Dice.

Maybe we should all go back to talking about Art Carney.  As in, chili con Carney.

E.J. Dionne breathlessly writes this in his Friday column:

Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who is retiring, confessed to me that if his party “were dog food, they’d take us off the shelf and put us in a landfill.”

Hate to betray the sanctity of a confession — but it’s really not.

Davis has been using that line for a while.

For example, it was in Dionne’s own newspaper, the Washington Post, on March 13:

“The House Republican brand is so bad right now that if it were a dog food, they’d take it off the shelf,” said retiring Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (Va.), who chaired the NRCC for four years earlier this decade.

Oh dear.

We disagree with Jeremiah Wright, who presumably at one point in his life said something like, “Nah, nah, nah … don’t God bless West Virginia, God damn West Virginia.”

No, because of West Virginia we are blessed with assertions like Hillary Clinton’s:

Implying that the party could lose in November if he is the nominee, Clinton told patrons of Tudor’s Biscuit World in Charleston: “I keep telling people, no Democrat has won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia.”

So the question is, how long has Hillary been telling this to people, and when she does, do they give her any meds?  Maybe she needs a rubber biscuit.

…. so it seems Barack Obama is becoming more and more a man of the people:

Early yesterday at a diner in Greenwood, Ind., Obama took a seat at the counter, ordered a ham-and-feta-cheese omelet  …

Of course, like most everyday Americans, I typically take my feta with a splash of V-8.

The Washington Post reminds us today:

Gerald Ford bit into a tamale without husking it while campaigning on the Mexican border in 1976, and he extolled its deliciousness before realizing he had consumed the wrapper.

it was a great moment in campaign history … well at least in Jerry Ford history. When Ford died in December 2006, the Houston Chronicle provided this tidy recounting of what happened:

It was called the “Great Tamales Incident” because President Gerald Ford committed a no-no by picking up a plate of tamales during an April 1976 visit to the Alamo and started to bite into one still shuck-wrapped.

Then-Mayor Lila Cockrell, who was at the brief tour of the Alamo, said most people gulped when they saw Ford eating one of the tamales with the husk.

“I think he just picked up the plate because if someone had given him the plate, the tamales would not have had the shucks,” Cockrell said. “The president didn’t know any better. It was obvious he didn’t get a briefing on the eating of tamales.”

Of course, Jimmy Carter beat Ford in 1976.  When asked afterward about lessons learned, Ford replied, “Always shuck your tamales.”

Alas, the embarrassment took place decades before YouTube would have captured and hermetically sealed it forever.  At least we do have this photo: