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JOHN MCCAIN, Republican presidential nominee, Arizona senator: Coffee, cereal, and fruit.

BARACK OBAMA, Democratic presidential nominee, Illinois senator: Four to six eggs, potatoes, and wheat toast. Every now and then, fruit, bacon, and oatmeal.
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MIKE BARNICLE, political analyst, MSNBC: "I'm a diner guy. No matter where I am in this country, I manage to find a diner at the start of each day. I'm also a counter guy. Sit right there on a stool where you can see the counterman flipping the eggs, making the omelettes; where you can look the waitress in the eye and place your order without ever having to bother checking a menu. Egg white–ham omelette, period. No toast, no home fries. Large O.J. and a cup of coffee.

"My second favorite place for breakfast is the front seat of my car. There, in one of the last refuges in a nation cluttered with the useless debris of too much information, I can shut off my cell phone and BlackBerry and read the newspaper while sipping a large coffee with cream and three [packets of] Splenda."

MARION BARRY, current Ward 8 councilman, former D.C. mayor: At home, oatmeal, a peach or a pear, and a glass of juice. Over a morning meeting, as a treat, eggs benedict with a side of fruit.

TOM BROKAW, news anchor, NBC: "Breakfast varies for me, but the most consistent item is coffee—large and black, or a large cappuccino with skim milk. I'm mostly a granola and yogurt man, except about once a month, when I crave a toasted sesame seed bagel sandwich with two scrambled eggs and two strips of crispy bacon. Occasionally I'll do french toast with good maple syrup."

WALTER CRONKITE, news anchor, CBS: "My morning breakfast ritual is pretty much the same as it's always been—4,000 calories or so before swimming the four-by-100-meter race.... Not really, but most days I do enjoy a full, hot breakfast, with an occasional bowl of cold cereal for variety. The one constant in the morning is the time I spend reading through several newspapers—I can't wait to get to the news."

JOHN DICKERSON, political writer, Slate.com: "When we have time, my wife and I make a fruit smoothie: bananas, frozen fruit (usually strawberries or blueberries), plain yogurt, protein powder, flaxseed oil, and fish oil. On the weekends we make pancakes with the kids. When I'm on the road, all bets are off. If I'm lucky, I can find a smoothie somewhere, but it's usually some horrible muffin or muffinlike object."

MAUREEN DOWD, columnist, New York Times: "I don't eat breakfast. Just coffee."

JAMES FALLOWS, writer, Atlantic Monthly: "My theory is that breakfast is the meal where people most deeply crave their own native cuisine. Consistent with this theory, one of my goals is to reach the end of this current stint in China—we're now two years into a planned three-year stay—without ever having to eat the standard Chinese breakfast gruel, called congee…. I am not a morning person, so I don't have that rearin'-to-go attitude of those who consider a hearty breakfast the start to a productive day. Instead, I have this array of unimaginative and therefore comforting choices, depending on where I am each day.

"On the road in a nice hotel in Asia: A big, cholesterol-rich cheese omelette, with good toasted bread on the side and several liters of coffee (strong, black, a little milk, none of this latte stuff). In theory this might be bad for me, but I'm healthy otherwise, and it keeps me going a long time.

"At home in China, a day of writing ahead: A bowl of raisin bran (which we buy on resupply trips to the U.S.) with milk and several liters of coffee as described above. More coffee to follow through the next few hours at my desk. Sometimes, if we're out of raisin bran, I'll have some Chinese bread toasted with peanut butter. See comments above regarding health: I exercise all the time, so I don't let doctors know what I eat in the morning.

"At home in the U.S.: Some combo of the elements above: sometimes an omelette, sometimes cereal, and of course the beloved bagel–and–cream cheese combo. Sometimes coffee yogurt. All liberally supplied with actual liquid coffee.

"If forced to violate my initial principle—breakfast is when you want the food you've known since your earliest days—I would choose to be transplanted to Germany, where I could have black bread and slices of cheese and pickles and cured meat. Plus the coffee."

ADRIAN FENTY, mayor, District of Columbia: Oatmeal and bananas, along with chamomile tea with lots of honey.

DON GONYEA, White House correspondent, NPR: "Black coffee. Wheat toast with peanut butter. Yogurt, if I haven't run out. Election years it gets a bit tricky, with months on the road and frequent 5:00 a.m. gathering times in hotel lobbies, so I travel with my own bag of ground coffee and my own stack of paper filters; that way I can make a decent cup in the hotel room."

BILL HEMMER, FOX cohost, America's Newsroom: "I hit the same Starbucks every morning. Latte, whole milk. Two bananas. My alarm is set to AM radio. The morning news headlines get my brain going."

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, writer, journalist, pundit: "Old-fashioned Irish oatmeal with salt, plus espresso and two squeezed oranges, which together give me the strength to mount my ROM [Range of Motion] exercise machine for the four-minute workout."

DAVID HOROWITZ, conservative writer and activist: "Bowl of Special K, usually with blueberries, raspberries, or bananas. After that I have a cup of black coffee with a Happy Valley granola bar."