OBAMA and PALIN share a milkshake? Archie serves up one intriguing 'straw poll'

(images courtesy of Archie Comics)

We've grown accustomed to a lot of changes in Riverdale. We've watched Archie, Betty and Veronica share a three-way malted. We've seen this year's debut of gay character Kevin Keller. And we've witnessed last year's flash-forward matrimonial storylines of Archie and his twin amours. Suffice to say, little in the land of jalopies, Jughead and sublimated sexual appetites gives us much pause anymore.

Yet Barack Obama and Sarah Palin sharing a milkshake? What in the name of Kelis is going on here?

Come December, the Illinois-rooted prez and the grizzly mama from Wasilla will indeed reach across the malt-shop aisle and share a soda jerk's frothiest chocolately shake, courtesy of a two-part storyline, Archie Comics announced Wednesday. Talk about your straw polls.

Riverdale will become "the center of the political world" in December and January (Issues Nos. 616 and 617), as Archie and Reggie engage in their own "campaign pains" and the high-school high jinks take on shades of the film "Election." Only at Riverdale, each candidate claims to have a political supporter in Obama or Palin.

Now, if only Palin didn't look quite so much like Betty in brunette disguise. Then again, now there's Riverdale political intrigue that might almost surprise us.