Endorsing Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign on Monday reminded Iowa’s first lady of a song by The Lovin’ Spoonful.
The song is about a man torn between a girl and her sister. One is “cute as a bunny” with “plenty of money,” the other a “mousey little girl.”
Christie Vilsack, wife of Democratic Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, recited her slightly altered version of the lyrics: “Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other ones behind. It’s not often easy, it’s not often kind. Did you ever have to make up your mind?”
Then the first lady and the Massachusetts senator sealed the deal with a chaste peck on the cheek.
The governor does not plan to endorse a presidential candidate. He also withheld his endorsement four years ago, when his wife, who is a teacher, backed Al Gore.
–Dan Mihalopoulos
THE WHITE CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY CAMPAIGN
During a tour of Stonyfield Farm, the world’s largest organic yogurt producer, one would have thought retired Gen. Wesley Clark was unveiling a major campaign initiative by the way the cameras zoomed in at the end of his two-hour visit. But what the journalists really were interested in was Clark’s reaction to a new flavor of yogurt he had just tasted.
“Ummmm,” Clark told employees of the Londonderry, N.H., yogurt plant. “I like that. It has a nice consistency.”
The yogurt in question was white chocolate raspberry, and Clark seemed to be a huge fan. Even as a dozen employees gathered in a conference room to ask him about the U.S. economy, foreign policy and health care, the former four-star Army general wolfed down the entire yogurt container. Behind him stood a life-size plaster cow completely covered with Stonyfield Farm decals. No one mentioned to Clark, whose wife is named Gert, that the cow went by the name Gurt.
“It’s Gurt–spelled G-u-r-t–short for yogurt,” an employee said before Clark arrived. “It has nothing to do with Mrs. Clark.”
–Kirsten Scharnberg
NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART
Rep. Richard Gephardt’s campaign stump speech contains a healthy dose of criticism for the Bush administration’s health-care policies. Usually, he touches on the high cost of prescription drugs.
But on Monday, before about 70 people in Atlantic, Iowa, he paid a backhanded compliment to the pharmaceutical industry’s advertising.
“I don’t need to see people running through flowers at the top of a mountain because they took Claritin or something,” the Missouri congressman said. “I mean, you know, these ads are so good I almost want to buy these drugs.”
Hours later, health care gained new importance to Gephardt in Council Bluffs when a supporter fainted briefly. As paramedics helped her to her feet, Gephardt said, “Gee, I hope it wasn’t my speech.”
–Rick Pearson
