An endorsement that carries some weight

There's little doubt now that we're in the midst of a major media burst from Barack Obama, whose campaign today announced yet another new ad. This one is a 60-second radio spot in Iowa featuring Duffy Lyon, she of Iowa butter cow fame. Lyon is a farmer near Tama, Iowa but she is best known for sculpting creamy cows that graced the Iowa State Fair for years. Lyon showed up at an Obama campaign stop in Tama in August with a new butter creation: Obama's circular campaign logo perched on the word "HOPE."

"You know, you see a lot of manure in our line of work," Lyon says in the ad. "It’s a lot like politics. You got to know what's bull and what's for real." Lyon also touts Obama's plan for rural America, which he released recently.

Here's a blurb about about the butter cow from the Iowa State Fair.

The Butter Cow starts with a wood, metal, wire and steel mesh frame and about 600 lbs. of low moisture, pure cream Iowa butter. Once inside the 40-degree cooler, layers of butter are applied until a life-size butter cow emerges - measuring about 5-1/2-ft high and 8-ft long. Each year features one of the six major dairy breeds – Jersey, Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Holstein, Guernsey and Milking Shorthorn. While a real dairy cow weighs more than 1,000 pounds, a 600-lb. butter cow would butter 19,200 slices of toast and take an average person two lifetimes to consume, according to sponsor Midwest Dairy Association. Much of the butter is recycled and reused for up to 10 years. The Midwest Dairy Association has commissioned all the Iowa State Fair Butter Cow sculptures since 1960.