For a candidate, eating like a regular person when you're on the campaign trail is hard.

The cameras are in your face and they really, really, really want to see you drip grease on

your shirt or eat a slice of pizza with a knife and fork or take a big old bite out of a, let's face it, totally phallic corn dog.

In the coming months, as we watch the Clinton and Trump bandwagons go from town to town,

from diners to barbecues to hog roasts, Dan Pashman, host of the Sporkful Podcasts,

wants you to know that every choice the candidates make

about food, to slurp or not to slurp, is a thoroughly vetted process. So right now, politicians

across the country are on the campaign trail. That means they're stopping at small town diners and

big fundraising dinners, county and state fairs. And as they go, they're stopping at small town diners and big fundraising dinners, county and state fairs.

And as they go, they're eating.

And each time they take a bite, candidates have a chance to win over voters or lose them.

Here's former Arkansas governor and two-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

A lot of times I'd be at some banquet and people would come up and look at my plate and say,

I just wanted to see what you were eating. And it suddenly made me realize people were really paying

attention. People do pay attention to that. They get concerned if you don't go to the iconic

place in their community. If you're not willing to

take a bite of a big pork tenderloin, you know, then you're not, you're not one of them.

This is Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. He ran for president back in 2008, but he dropped out

before any primaries or debates were held. He's also a two-term governor of Iowa. So

the guy knows his way around the campaign trail.

You know, every day, there are a series of missteps that can happen with food that can create problems.

And those problems can be big. For instance, back in 1976, Gerald Ford was running for president against Jimmy Carter.

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