Baby on the Trail to Test Candidates

Posing for pictures with the babies is longstanding tradition for political candidates.

One New Hampshire family recently decided to have a little fun with their newest arrival and the Presidential hopefuls visiting their home state.

In the process tiny Dahlia Garnick became a campaign trail celebrity.

They found that if politics are a contact sport, then babies can be political footballs, a winning prop when smiling, something to punt when they're not.

"I think you can tell something about a candidate's personality by how they respond to a crying baby," explained father Darren Garnick.

Garnick says he learned a lot from how the politicians handled his five-month-old daughter Dahlia.

"There's two she doesn't look happy, in one with McCain and one with Giuliani," added five-year-old brother Ari.

"Rudy basically passed the baby to me like a football. When the baby started crying he ouldn't get rid of the baby fast enough," said Darren. "John McCain didn't freak out, he just said 'There goes another vote'.

So who would get Dahlia's vote if she had a say?

"I think both Barack Obama and Hillary were natural with babies. I think it's tough to fake that," Darren said.

It will make for a nice bipartisan baby scrapbook thanks to Dad's diligence.

Mom Stacy Garnick wasn't behind Darren's plan at the beginning.

"I tried to support him and sometimes rolled my eyes, but mostly was really interested to hear what he would say when he came back."

Darren thinks his scrapbook will be a nice gift for Dahlia later in life.

"I hope Dahlia will get a kick out of all this. I wish I had a picture of myself saying 'goo goo ga ga' in Richard Nixon's arms," he said.