First Ladies/Spouses should be about character, not cooking

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

Michelle Obama is the guest host on "The View" on ABC-TV this morning. Cindy McCain made an appearance in April, so this is Obama's turn.

There is a new Pew survey on the perceptions of Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain. Of those that responded, they say the coverage of Obama has been mostly negative (26 percent to 21 percent). For McCain, the numbers were 31 percent said the coverage was mostly positive and 7 percent say it has been generally negative.

Voters aren't likely to make their picks based on the spouses, but perceptions of them do play a role. But if that is going to happen, the public should get a true sense of the potential First Ladies.

I haven't heard that much positive at all about Michelle Obama. I do remember watching her on the "Colbert Report" and being very impressed. Then again, I liked the general attitude of even her most controversial statements. Obama is a strong woman who I think would bring a 21st Century attitude to the White House.

Cindy McCain remains an enigma. Her good points and her bad points don't get much publicity. It even took a while before I heard what her voice sounded like.

Her work with cleft palates should be commended and get more publicity. I remember taking a class in college on speech difficulties, the hardest class I took in college. Each lecture was from a different expert in the field. I learned a bit about cleft palates, and so I'm sympathetic to this cause.

But I am continually baffled by her continuing plagiarism of recipes. The potential spouses (Bill Clinton was included since Hillary was still in the race before the press deadline) submitted recipes for the July 2008 issue of Family Circle. (For the two recipes side-by-side, click here.)

The differences are extremely subtle: the "major" difference is 1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips (McCain) vs. 1 3/4 cups butterscotch chips (Hershey's). There are subtle differences: McCain's calls for unsalted butter or margarine, Hershey's has no preference; McCain's calls for regular brown sugar, Hershey's for light brown sugar; McCain's calls for rolled oats, while Hershey's says quick cooking or regular rolled oats.

This is the second time Cindy McCain has been caught plagiarizing recipes. In April, the recipes were lifted from the Food Network.

For whatever reason, our society has decided that one of the requirements of the First Lady is to be able to make food. I personally blame Dolley Madison, official First Lady from 1809 to 1817 and who unofficially served as First Lady under Thomas Jefferson since his wife had died in 1782. I don't think Madison went on to invent the Zingers, but there may be a correlation.

Whether you think we should care about the recipes of the spouses of those running for president, if you are going to participate, you should do so honorably and ethically. So far, Cindy McCain is 0-for-2. Yet the mainstream media has barely blinked when it comes to McCain's ethics.

If Hillary Clinton in 1992 or Michelle Obama in 2008 had done what Cindy McCain has done twice, the MSM would not shut up about it. But we barely hear a peep.

In the interest of fairness, there has been a discovery that Bill Clinton's recipe for Family Circle is extremely similar to a Betty Crocker recipe. The big difference is that Clinton admitted the recipe is from longtime Clinton family cook Oscar Flores.

From Family Circle: "Longtime Clinton family cook Oscar Flores -- he worked for them in Washington and after but is now serving in Iraq -- is famous for these brown-sugar treats, which tempt the former president to break his diet."

So Clinton admitted it isn't his own recipe. Everything McCain has submitted she has claimed to be her own.

I like to spend time in the kitchen, though I confess I'm more of a cooker (one who cooks) than a baker (one who bakes).

I like cooking over baking because you can change around recipes and not mess up the dish. In baking, you can't normally upset the balance with ingredients such as flour, eggs, baking soda, salt, etc. But there are variations to make a recipe distinct. You could add an unusual nut to a nut cookie, or mix in dark chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate.

In Michelle Obama's shortbread cookies, the recipe comes from Mama Kaye, the godmother of both Obama daughters. The cookies contain orange and lemon zest, an unusual item that could make a cookie distinct and unique.

Cindy McCain and Bill Clinton have changed their eating habits to eat healthier, and that could easily have been incorporated in a dish. You could use applesauce to replace the fat in a cake for health reasons. There is a recipe for brownies made popular by The Washington Post's Lean Plate Club that involves a 15 oz. can of black beans combined with a box of brownie mix.

When I learned to cook, I took recipes from the Joy of Cooking. But over time, I adapted every single recipe I have ever done. When I started making my own spaghetti sauce, I adapted the ratios from a package of spaghetti sauce mix, but the current product is nowhere near anything that could ever be found on a mix.

The service of a First Lady (or First Spouse) to this country should be so much more than the ability to bake. Unless every single one of us gets a cookie, we shouldn't worry about it. But as long as we are going to go through this charade, we should have spouses who either a) admit they don't cook and be upfront, or b) can cook and submit an original recipe. Because this charade can tell us something about the character of a potential First Spouse. So far, Michelle Obama is winning that race over Cindy McCain.

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