you can NOT be SERIOUS!!!! LOL

i didn't have to touch this article for it to be funny. i had no idea of this history of first ladies and cookies which apparently existed before 'family circle' magazine made a thing of it a few years ago.

Recipe in magazine competition to predict next US first lady

The heat is on, and the stakes are high, with the potential first ladies' bake-off underway and organizer Family Circle magazine looking to see which way the cookie is going to crumble.

In the past four presidential elections, readers of the magazine have successfully predicted who would be America's next first lady by favoring her recipe in the magazine's competition.

Something with chocolate has melted the hearts of readers in the last four elections. So both Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain might be taking a risk by eschewing everyone's favorite treat.

Instead, Michelle Obama, wife of Democratic Illinois Senator Barack Obama, has put forward a recipe for shortbread cookies with zest of lemon and orange, and a cheeky kick of almond liqueur Amaretto.

The recipe comes courtesy of Mama Kaye, the godmother of both her daughters, Sasha and Malia.

Cindy McCain, who earlier this year had to apologize for plagiarizing a recipe for passion fruit mousse from Food Network, went for oatmeal butterscotch cookies.

They are "an absolute must whenever the whole family gets together," says the multi-millionaire heiress to a large beer distribution firm, married to Republican presidential hopeful John McCain.

Readers can vote online at the magazine's website with the results to be published in mid-October, just ahead of the November 4 elections.

At the end of the week, Cindy McCain's recipe seemed to be slicing through the competition. One online reader complained that he had had to go out specially to buy Amaretto so his wife could bake Michelle Obama's treats.

If history is anything to go by, Obama might be in for a rough ride. In 2004, Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of 2004 Democrat presidential candidate, John Kerry, failed to beat off the competition from Laura Bush, current first lady of the Republican president. Kerry's pumpkin spice cookies lost to Bush's oatmeal chocolate chunk cookies.

Four years earlier the first lady had already set the bar high with her Texas Governor's Mansion Cowboy cookies made with chocolate chips and coconut, which proved more popular than Tipper Gore's ginger snaps.

Hillary Clinton won in 1992 and in 1996 with the same recipe for chocolate chip cookies, whipping the competition from Barbara Bush and then Elizabeth Dole.

This year former president Bill Clinton got a chance to show off his culinary talents, choosing a recipe for oatmeal cookies from long time Clinton cook, Oscar Flores. - Agence France-Presse

an english newsteam baked up the cookies to the recipes in family circle and took them on the streets of london. mccain's cookies took 52% of the vote but i'm sure not many brits actually knew who he was LOL!!!

It's ridiculous, isn't it?

Nothing like a presidential run to turn alpha females into Betty Crockers.

Perhaps, Martha Stewart is more apt.

Laura Bush doing a cookie-fest. Credible.

The rest of them. Not.

Alright Anotherscorp, here is where you mention feminism.

yeah but yum, bill clinton had to make some cookies but he cheated and submitted the recipe of one of the clinton's cooks!!! i bet he was soooo relieved when she bailed out of the presidentials cos the man's had a lifetime's worth of humiliation already!!!

a couple of american tourists were offered the test in london and both of them made out like they were spitting out the mccain cookie when it was revealed to them!!! 'yeah, well it's not strictly speaking a cookie is it and uuuhm'.

obviously a popular choice for president!