Peter Frase

Via Andrew Gelman, the New York Times explains what your culinary choices say about your political predilections.

I immediately wondered what my own tastes reveal about my deepest political desires. To clarify the situation, I summarized the first few paragraphs of the Times article in a table. Here are the food choices that are supposed to correspond to each candidate:

              Clinton       Obama        McCain
Fat           butter        olive oil    pizza
Beverage      white wine    latte        bourbon
Sweet         fig newton    granola      pizza

The article only gives two food choices for McCain, so I had to use pizza twice. (Commercial pizza, like all commercial food, is loaded with corn syrup after all.)

If I had to pick, I'd go with the butter over olive oil (though I love both). Beverages, bourbon wins by a mile. And I'd take the fig newton, I guess, although I don't really understand what's so Clintonian about it. Anyway, I guess I'm supposed to vote for Clinton or McCain now. Perhaps this explains my semi-irrational distaste for the Obama campaign, though.

But wait, there's more:

For example, Dr Pepper is a Republican soda. Pepsi-Cola and Sprite are Democratic. So are most clear liquors, like gin and vodka, along with white wine and Evian water. Republicans skew toward brown liquors like bourbon or scotch, red wine and Fiji water.

As Gelman asks, what about Mr. Pibb? Also, red wine and Fiji water are Republican? Seriously?

Dr. Pepper is my favorite soda, though. So maybe I should rethink my politics. Also, for a long time I believed that Dr. Pepper contained prune juice, and that the "Dr." originally advertised the beverage's laxative powers. But apparently that's just an urban legend.