MSNBC's Willie Geist has been sampling the food at the Minnesota State Fair, which is running concurrently with the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and developed a love/hate relationship with deep-fried, chocolate-dipped farm products on a stick:
There was no Colorado State Fair to visit last week during the Democratic Convention in Denver, but the DNC threw a party for the 15,000 assembled members of the media at Elitch Gardens, a Six Flags amusement park near the Convention venue that (pre-Six Flags) also hosted the delegates to the 1908 Dem convention.
Molson/Coors provided the beer and volunteers served hors d'oeuvres, including Rocky Mountain Oysters, "Colorado's True Delicacy." I asked one server to describe the local treat and how they're prepared:
Food, of course, can be both a metaphor for politics ("porkbarrel spending") and a substantial policy driver ("let them eat cake," "bread and circuses"). So it makes sense to look for the policy implications of the two conventions' food choices.
The RNC clearly is sending both "get the government off our backs" and "buy American" messages: if we want to eat pork triglyceride bombs (slaughtered and packed in Chicago) coated in high fructose corn syrup-based faux chocolate (from Iowa corn) coated in cornstarch (Iowa again) and deep-fried in corn oil (what, does Iowa have an early caucus or something?) heated with all-American natural gas, then we damn well should be allowed to.
If food = politics, though, then what message are the Democrats sending by feeding the media plucked, sliced, and pounded bull testes? Maybe it's an in-your-face rebuttal to an earlier segment by Geist on Tucker Carlson's show, in which Geist showcased Hillary Clinton Nutcracker dolls (from a Minnesota company) and Carlson made his infamous "I involuntarily close my legs when she speaks" comment.
Or maybe it's just that Democratic men are self-confident enough around powerful women to be OK with eating bull testes -- though as we learn more about the Republican vice presidential nominee, that may be changing, too.
[Update: we've learned that a humorous image previously shown here, of Gov. Palin in a stars-and-stripes bikini and holding a hunting rifle, was Photoshopped. A real photo of the candidate in that getup would be fair game, but in the interest of honesty, it's been removed, with apologies to Gov. Palin.]