PHILADELPHIA — The presidential candidate known for his eloquence on the stump was savoring a huge cheesesteak when he looked up at the battery of photographers surrounding his table and reported: “I’m working through this sucker pretty good.”
Not the most poetic line from Barack Obama, but it captured the campaign’s central activity in the walk-up to last week’s Pennsylvania primary: eating.
Eager to showcase his regular-guy credentials, the Democrat sampled everything put in front of him. Waffles in Scranton. Pancakes in Pittsburgh. Cheesesteak in Philly.
Campaigning by Obama’s side, his wife, Michelle, gamely sunk her fork into each high-calorie offering, although by the time the votes were coming in Tuesday she looked ready to swear off food for good.
“I’m stuffed,” she said, standing outside Pat’s King of Steaks in South Philadelphia, having polished off a cheesesteak a few minutes before.
A presidential campaign is an exercise in endurance. How much can the candidate withstand? There’s the lost sleep, the draining schedule, the vocal chords strained to the breaking point by hundreds of speeches.
And the food.
Candidates don’t have the luxury of eating what they want, when they want.
In that tearful moment before the New Hampshire primary three months ago, in which Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton may have revived her political fortunes, one of the campaign rigors she complained about was having to eat pizza all the time.
Yet campaign food has undeniable political utility. In Scranton last week, Obama was at a diner when he got a question from a reporter about foreign policy. Not wanting to answer, the candidate invoked his breakfast. “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” he said.
Later, the scraps from Obama’s waffle briefly were put up for sale on eBay. A spokeswoman for the auction site said Friday that the seller pulled the item before a sale was completed.
Obama faced another calorie-laden challenge Tuesday at Pat’s in Philadelphia. Bill and Chelsea Clinton had stopped there the day before.
“Chelsea said they were the best cheese fries she’d had in her life,” said Tom Francano, general manager of the restaurant.
With TV cameras literally at his elbow, Obama sat down for a juicy cheesesteak with onions while making conversation with three people at his outdoor table — a difficult task even for a seasoned candidate.
Would he get splattered? No, Obama managed to emerge with his white shirt still clean.
Before posing for a picture at his table with a 16-year-old girl, Ariel McDermott, he turned to Michelle: “Do I have Cheez Whiz in my teeth?” All clear, she said.
Ariel’s father, Charles McDermott, who runs an Arby’s restaurant in the city, said he was impressed by what he had seen. Asked whom he planned to vote for, McDermott declined to name names. But he did say, “I’ll give you a hint. He had lunch with us today.”
