Thanks, Michelle, for posting about the banal controversy over the '08 Presidential Cookie Bake-Off, because your post led me to the comments sections for the online recipes, which are fantastic. Die-hard bakers seem to be experiencing an inordinate amount of anguish over Cindy McCain's and Bill Clinton's recipes. Especially funny are the comments that divine each spouse's leadership traits based on his or her Bake-Off behavior:
(About Cindy McCain's oatmeal-butterscotch recipe, which was stolen from Hershey) This ripping people off thing is really quite revealing about Mrs. McCain. It surely helps to explain the complete disrespect she showed to Big John's first wife (who had waited all those years for him while he was a POW, only to then suffer a disfiguring accident after he returned) when she (Cindy) stole him (Big John) from her. One has to also wonder if she is using drugs again - this is definitely addict-like behavior.
(About Bill Clinton's oatmeal recipe, which was stolen from Betty Crocker) I am a liberal. But I don't mind pointing out how wrong is wrong, no matter which party steals recipes. At least Bill Clinton did not have "relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." I don't mind him lying about that so much because President Clinton should not have been asked about Ms. Lewinsky in the first place. But stealing recipes and claiming they are your own is pretty low.
Pretty low, indeed. I suppose any piece of information, even a spouse's attitude towards baked goods, can be useful when we're picking who will govern the Free World.
--Eve Fairbanks