The beverage has had a starring role in the 2024 campaign because, it turns out, both vice-presidential candidates are fans of it. That suggests some artificially sweetened version of horseshoe theory, with left and right arriving at a similar destination, a carbonated détente. It’s also zero calories per serving, and neither man seems to be a metabolic marvel liberated from any worry about weight. President Theodore Roosevelt, so appreciative of nature, plucked mint from the White House garden for juleps. President Donald Trump, so given to excess, drank as many as 12 Diet Cokes a day.

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Persons: ’, syrupy —, JD Vance, Tim Walz, men’s, It’s, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Donald Trump, Cokes Organizations: Ohio, Gov Locations: Minnesota