Obama: Butter Cow, yes, Bumper Cars, no

President Barack Obama's Iowa state fair to-do list: Check out Butter Cow, see if this chocolate moose thing is real, but stay away from the fried Twinkies and the bumper cars.

Obama launched a three-day bus tour through this heartland state--the place that helped propel his unlikely bid for the White House in 2008--with a stop in Council Bluffs. And he'll end it at Iowa's famous state fair.

"Michelle has told me I cannot have a fried Twinkie. But I will be checking out Butter Cow, and I understand this year there's a chocolate moose," he said, adding that he would "take a look at that if I can." (Butter Cow is exactly what it sounds like. A cow. Made of butter. And the fair is famous for deep frying pretty much anything and everything.)

"The last time I went to the state fair, Secret Service let me do the bumper cars. But they said this year…I wasn't president then so I could do that, but not this time," he said.