Mutz, Diana C2023-05-222023-05-222010-10-072013-04-09https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/1972Using the most extensive dataset available on the 2008 election, I examine the impact of dog ownership on presidential vote preference. Canines were elevated to the status of a campaign issue when, during the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama publicly promised his daughters a dog after the election was over, a campaign promise that has since been fulfilled. However, this announcement appears to have unintentionally highlighted the absence of a key point of potential identification between this candidate and voters, and thus to have significantly undermined the likelihood that dog-owning voters would support Obama. I elaborate upon the implications of this finding for future presidential candidates.© 2010 American Political Science Association, PS: Political Science & Politics (http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PSC)CommunicationArticle