FOOD

Breakfast Cereals Endorse Obama, Hillary

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (CAP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama may be facing a bit of an endorsement lift next week from an unlikely source: the Breakfast of Champions.

"In addition to winning our corporate headquarters state [Minnesota] by a two-to-one margin, Barack Obama has also shown himself to clearly be the more athletic and sportly of the remaining presidential candidates," said General Mills spokesman Doug Sandabar. "His obvious love of basketball, swimming, and to a lesser extent bowling, make him a perfect Wheaties box candidate."

The Obama camp was quick to welcome the endorsement.

"Barack Obama has long been a Wheaties fan, and he still enjoys a bowl every morning with his demitasse and Beluga caviar," said Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "Wheaties is how we all start our long campaign days, and we certainly welcome both the cereal's and General Mill's endorsements."

Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton's campaign downplayed the endorsement and suggested that the New York Senator might herself be picking up a breakfast cereal endorsement by week's end.

"While we respect Wheaties, isn't it really kind of an irrelevant cereal now?" asked Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. "A more hipper breakfast cereal, like Froot Loops or Honey Smacks, now that would be an endorsement. Although I really can't announce anything firm at this time, we've been in talks with the Kellogg's cereal company, and may have more information on this by the end of the week.

"And this company is from a state - Michigan - that does matter, should matter, and will matter very much in this nomination process!" Singer added.

Even former President Bill Clinton had some thoughts on the Wheaties endorsement.

"Well, he wouldn't be the first black man to make the cover of a Wheaties box, now would he?" Clinton asked at a campaign stop in Terra Haute, Ind. "Now him on a box of Cocoa Krispies, that'd be something to see, wouldn't it?"