Rick Santorum may not have raised a lot of money or attracted much support in the polls, but his campaign for the presidency will be trying a new tack for votes at the Ames Iowa Straw Poll: Some delicious homemade peach jam.
The Des Moines Register reports that Santorum told an Iowa audience on Tuesday that his family has fruit trees back home, and he and his children harvested peaches, peeled them, and made them into jelly. And now, they will be bringing 40 jars to Iowa.
“We are bringing them to the Straw Poll and we are going to give everybody a sample,” said Santorum, dubbing the product “Pennsylvania Presidential Peach Preserves.”
Don’t count out this tactic completely. In the 1840 presidential election, one thing the opposition Whig Party did to cement its momentum from the economic depression was to mount a national effort of handing out hard cider at campaign events, tying it to the manufactured image of nominee William Henry Harrison as a rugged outdoorsman. Though come to think of it, 40 jars of peach jelly probably isn’t as convincing as hard cider.
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.