Baby kissing

The practice appears to have originated in the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy, along with other techniques such as "banners, badges, parades, barbecues, [and] free drinks", which were used to get out the vote.[1] An 1888 issue of The Cosmopolitan featured a story about President Andrew Jackson, in which Jackson, touring the Eastern United States in 1833, presented a baby to U.S. Secretary of War John Eaton to kiss.[2][3] In 1886, the magazine Babyhood reported that most presidents of the United States had accepted "kissing babies as an official duty".[2] In the 1890s, Elizabeth Cady Stanton criticized the practice on the basis of hygiene and children's rights, and praised President Benjamin Harrison for refraining from it.[2]

The journalist Elinor Burkett argues that the practice "is designed to suggest that the candidate is stable and trustworthy".[4] The practice may be especially strongly associated with efforts to win women's votes and support: during the 1920 United States presidential election, The Nation reported that James M. Cox's ability "to kiss other people’s babies as if he enjoyed it" rendered him "well-nigh invulnerable with women voters"; while David Shears, a British observer of American politics writing in 1961, concluded: "I suppose baby-kissing is meant to appeal to the women's vote. But every woman knows it's pretty hard to kiss a baby unless you’re holding it, and it's quite risky enough holding your own baby, let alone somebody else's."[2]

• Politicians Kiss Babies in TV Tropes