THE PRESIDENTIAL COOKIE ELECT

McCain's Oatmeal & Butterscotch Cookies, O'Bama's Citrus Shortbread & Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies
Photography by: James Baigrie. Food styling: Sara Neumeier. Prop styling: Loren Simons.
Thank You to Meridith Publishing

Is it possible that the outcome of a presidential race could be predicted by the likes of a cookie? The readers of Family Circle seem to indicate that there might be some truth to this theory. Hard to believe but, true - the Family Circle audience has been able to predict the U.S. presidential winner according to a cookie bake-off the magazine holds every four years.

• 1992 Barbara Bush (Chocolate Chip Oatmeal) vs. Hillary Clinton (Chocolate Chip Oatmeal)
• 1996 Hillary Clinton (Reprisal) vs. Elizabeth Dole (Pecan Roll Cookies)
• 2000 Laura Bush (Cowboy Cookies) vs. Tipper Gore (Ginger Snaps)
• 2004 Laura Bush (Oatmeal-Chocolate Chunk Cookes) vs. Teresa Heinz Kerry (Pumpkin Spice Cookies)

This year I was invited by Fuji TV, Japan's largest TV Network (over 100 million viewers), to help test the cookie election theory on their show called Inside America. I got up at 3:00am and went over to the Waldorf-Astoria in New York to do the filming for this segment.

Cindy McCain's Butterschotch
& Oatmeal Cookies

The producer of the show wanted to put the election theory to the test. I made four recipes: Michelle O'Bama's Citrus Shortbread Cookies, Sydney McCain's Oatmeal and Butterscotch Cookies, Bill Clinton's Oatmeal Cookies (who was still on the original list at the contest start), and my addition of Chelsea Clinton's favorite chocolate chip cookies. Kaoru Utada (the producer) and her camera man took the cookies to the streets of Manhantan for a blind taste test.

Michelle O'Bama's Citrus Shortbread

I can't give you the final scoop on who the winner is, but one interesting side note is that the test audience showed a preference to their own political candidate. This segment will air today exclusively in Japan.

Here is Better Homes & Garden's Coverage on the Presidential Cookie: