Fun with Politics (125)

So Barack takes North Carolina, while Hillary will probably get Indiana. No surprise there; we’re all so bored that even my daughter, who is six, is wondering out loud when this is over with. Before I start beating myself up over having introduced politics to a first grader too early, she brings me her homework.  Mixed in with the assignments is an issue of Time Magazine for Kids, the “Road to the White House” edition. Ah.

“Candidates meet people,” it says, “they shake hands and kiss babies; they answer people’s questions.” Frankly, I’ve always wondered about that baby bit. Why do politicians kiss babies when they are on the trail? And do they stop this once they’re elected? What if they don’t win? Do they still continue kissing babies left and right; is it a hard habit to break?  And why would anybody want his or her baby kissed by a politician?  How do you know the candidate in question doesn’t have a bad cold?

Has anybody studied the effects of the baby kissing? One has to imagine there is some proven benefit to the whole deal; maybe a percentage point of gain among voters for every thirty babies kissed, something like that? Would it be the campaign manager’s job to whisper in the politician’s ear: there’s a good one on the left; skip the one in the green jammies, it looks like he’s got a rash!  Or would a candidate just sort of play it by ear?

There. That’s how bored I am.