What is it with American presidents kissing/holding babies?

Wikipedia to the rescue! I think it’s more of an American practice.

@PluckyDog has answered the question and it is late, so we can move on. If I were running for President I would smell babies’ heads rather than kiss them so I probably wouldn’t get elected. I love the smell of babies’ heads. They smell like cookies, only better, unless the baby has just thrown up, and then they smell like baby vomit, which doesn’t smell like cookies, only better.

@lillycoyote Yeah, but kissing babies means you love them. Smelling them, while actually natural and sweet, can come off a bit creepy.

It is an obsequious method of currying favour with one’s loyal subjects! Just as has been done by other royalty throughout history.

I think it is great that they care so much about the future cannon fodder.

@MyNewtBoobs Yes, I know. I said, in part:

”If I were running for President I would smell babies’ heads rather than kiss them so I probably wouldn’t get elected.”

I know I wouldn’t get elected smelling babies’ heads because one on one it’s fine but on the campaign trail, photo op after photo op, it would absolutely be kind of creepy.

The best thing to do would be to kiss their head so when you lower your mouth to kiss the head take in a big whiff of all that nice baby smell. No body would be the wiser (I think that’s the term)

I am totally aware of how creepy this comments sounds btw :P

@sarahhhhh That’s a great idea. Maybe my presidential campaign won’t be derailed after all, by my creepy babies’ head smelling thing.

For the record, I lurve new baby smell. I was just sniffing my niece’s noggin this past Sunday.

Yet one more reason I’ll never be president.

@cprevite You and me both.

And why do babies’ heads smell so good? I have no idea why, I just know that they do.

It’s not a peculiarly American thing, all politicians do it. I remember a clip on the news from an election in the 70s when Harold Wilson, campaigning to be elected Prime Minister, bent down into a pram to kiss the baby in it, who then started to cry. Cue the enraged mother shouting in incredulous fury “I’VE ONLY JUST GOT HIM TO SLEEP!”

@meiosis lol

I think babies smell so good because of all that baby soap, powder, shampoo, oil that they are showered with every day. I really really feel like sniffing a baby’s head now.

hmmm where can I find a crying, drooling mass

@sarahhhhh Canvassing your neighbors and/or knocking on their doors until you find someone who has a baby might work but I would advise against it. Talk about creepy.

I used unscented baby products, and a breastfed baby still smells sweet without all the perfume. They have their own natural perfume, and it is lovely (I don’t think a bottle fed baby does as much).

Baby kissing is a practice where politicians kiss babies in order to garner public support. The practice appears to have originated during the era of Jacksonian democracy along with other techniques such as “banners, badges, parades, barbecues, free drinks and baby kissing [which were used] in an effort to ‘get out the vote’”.[1] City and county office candidates may frequently practice baby kissing on the campaign trail, but on the state and federal levels this is rare or even discouraged, as expressed by the administrations of U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, and recently Barack Obama. Source

But IMHO it makes for great memories (in later years) when you have a picture of your baby being held/kissed by a president.

It’s about the only thing they can kiss and hold without setting off some kind of scandal?

Because saying, “Damn that’s one ugly baby” is sort of frowned upon.

@snowberry interesting. This means there is a natural baby smell. Maybe that is what “cute” smells like.

@sarahhhhh It is interesting. And I think there is a “science of cuteness.” I remember reading an article in Scientific American years and years ago so the details are a little sketchy but it involved an study of the facial characteristics of infants and young offspring from various mammal species and if I remember correctly, the researchers were able to determine that there were actually a number of specific, well defined facial characteristics shared across species that basically defined “cuteness” and I think that the longer it took to raise the offspring of a species the longer they retained those features to some degree. I believe their theory was that because mammalian offspring take a relatively long time and a lot of work, attention and energy to raise and have some rather unpleasant habits like vomiting, crying, whining, wandering off, etc. that the “cuteness” facial features and characteristics would be selected for because cuteness both increases bonding and makes the parent (s) more likely to feel their little creature are worth all the trouble. Kind the “If they weren’t so damn cute I’d…” theory. Maybe the delicious baby smell is something along the same lines.

@sarahhhhh Breast milk is sweet. A baby that is purely breast fed will smell that way, partly from the smell of the milk on his cheeks, but it also comes out of his skin. I have often kissed the top of my baby’s head, and breathed in his lucious baby smell. It tends to disappear when they start eating solid food.

@snowberry I think you’re right. Babies FTW