Obama is kid tested, grandma approved

"You have to do everything that grandma tells you to do," Senator Barack Obama said in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Michael LaCoste, 8, wanted to ask Barack Obama a question: "How do you get to be - how do you run for president?"

The crowd applauded and gave a little "ahhhh" as Obama started to answer.

"You have to work really hard in school and get really good grades. You have to do everything that grandma tells you to do," Obama said. "When you get out of school, then you've got to go to college. When you get out of college, you've got to get a job that's hopefully helping other people.

"And if you do all those things, then you might just be a president someday."

Asked about the exchange later, Michael said "it was cool" before being quickly interrupted by his grandmother, Sylvia LaCoste, 51. "Tell him you're not going to be a gangster," she said.

"I'm not going to be a gangster," repeated Michael.

His grandmother said that two weeks earlier, the young boy had declared he wanted to become a gangster, "so I sat him down and told him about good examples, and about Obama."

"This is a great thing," she said. "It's going down in family history."

ASSOCIATED PRESS