Is your coffee Democrat or your cookie Republican? As the United States enters the home stretch in the presidential election, campaign fever is evident in many details of everyday life. Until they cast their ballots on November 6, US citizens have various ways to show their political affiliation beyond the classic T-shirt or election banner. And these often are more accurate opinion polls than those conducted by the likes of Gallup or Pew.
Political statements can start early, with your morning coffee. With the motto "Get your steaming hot cup of democracy," the convenience store chain Seven Eleven allows customers to choose between the Obama disposable cup - blue with a donkey, the Democrats' colour and symbol - and the Romney cup - red, the Republican colour , with an elephant.
According to coffee cup projections, the incumbent is clearly ahead of his Republican rival Mitt Romney in much of the country. That's especially good news for US President Barack Obama because many of the more standard opinion polls recently have given him a headache.
Those who do not want to reveal their political preferences may continue to use neutral cups. But they will not be contributing to the interactive map (http://dpaq.de/IVTfW) that allows one to track in most of the country who is leading in the presidential race.
Coffee cups are surely a major step beyond the psychic reading of coffee grounds. As US media such as CNN have pointed out, in the three prior election cycles in which Seven Eleven has held its Every Coffee Cup Counts programme, the cup poll "accurately predicted the winner."
Meanwhile, Busken Bakery in Cincinnatti, Ohio, can boast a good prediction record, too. It offers the perfect complement to the country's most politicised coffee: presidential poll cookies, which have the effigies of the candidates. Sales of the cookies allow the firm to predict election results with an error of just a few crumbs. "Last election in 2008 our percentages for cookies sold actually matched the national electoral votes exactly," company president Dan Busken told dpa.
The maximum margin of error with respect to actual votes since his father Page Busken launched the presidential cookie tradition in 1984 has been 2-4 percentage points. Unlike Obama's and Romney's proposed campaign programmes, their Busken versions "are exactly the same cookie: same size, same ingredients, same taste," Dan Busken said.
Brian Busken, vice president of this Ohio family business, said Obama is currently leading the sale of presidential cookies, according to a count that is updated every 24 hours on their website (http://dpaq.de/6fiOB). However, with a lead of less than 2,000 cookies for the incumbent, both contenders remain head to head and a tight race is expected to the end.
"Obama has led from day one, but it is still neck and neck. We believe this will be a close finish, due to the many undecided eaters still out there," Brian Busken said. This should be a cause for concern for both candidates, who know Ohio is one of the key states in the election. Surely Romney cannot ignore the fact that no Republican candidate has ever made it to the White House without winning Ohio.
Close as the race is, setting aside coffee and cookies, it is clear that Obama and Romney will need to sweat it out to the end for victory. This, of course, does not mean that voters have to do the same. Who said politics stinks? It certainly was not the cosmetics firm Bliss, which has also launched its own projection-promotion campaign, with the suggestive name "Eau-lection" (http://dpaq.de/kMbsf). Bliss will grant anyone willing to pay 50 dollars for their products a choice between two gift body lotions: blue 'O' bama with an orange scent and red Mint Romney.
"May the best scent win!" Bliss said.
So far, Obama is also winning there. Election doubts will soon be over, but promotional campaigns will live on. And if you are not happy with election results on November 6, you can always find a way out: the airline Jet Blue has its own projections (http://dpaq.de/s7f26) and is to raffle off a free plane ticket to the destination of choice among participants whose candidate does not make it to the White House.