While the US is divided over a fast food chain, President Barack Obama and his challenger, Mitt Romney, have kept away from the culture war skirmish.

With politicians and talking shows hyperventilating over Chick-fil-A, neither candidate is wasting campaign energy over the dust-up.

A 3 August article in Politico noted that while the chicken debate was tasty fodder for  the conservative and liberal bases, it didn't help either candidate.

Romney's campaign has done it's best to stay away from culture war arguments, betting that the way to defeat the incumbent is to focus on the economy.

As for Obama, he supports same sex marriage and his Justice Department is not defending the Defense of Marriage Act. However, his campaign is leery of inflaming social conservatives.

One hard core cultural warrior, Patrick J. Buchanan, wants Romney to put on the head gear and jump into the battle.

'I don’t understand why Mitt Romney doesn’t just get his Secret Service detail and take his press corps down to a Chicken-fil-A and show solidarity with these people,” Buchanan said to Politico. 'I don’t know why not. It’s instinct. Reagan would have walked right on down there naturally.'

Buchanan, who worked in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, added that unless the Republican nominee became more explicit in the gay marriage battle people who are against same sex unions will 'walk away from the party.'

Despite Buchanan's musings, Romney has done much to shore up the traditional marriage vote. Approximately a year ago, he put his name on a pledge sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). The document calls for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, even in states where it’s been approved, and the creation of a presidential commission to ‘investigate harassment of traditional marriage supporters’. The group immediately endorsed the former governor when his major opponents stopped their campaigns.

‘We are proud to endorse Mitt Romney for President,’ NOM’s president Brian Brown said in a statement. ‘Governor Romney was an early signer of NOM’s presidential pledge which represents his commitment to the nation to take specific actions as president to preserve and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman.’