You can always tell when political campaigns change from first gear to second gear. The wife of Democratic U.S. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has resigned from a part-time position at TreeHouse Foods (NYSE: THS), a major Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) vendor. This move comes a week after her husband said he would not shop at Wal-Mart based on its anti-union stance.

With U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton moving away from her past association with Wal-Mart and with the wife of a Clinton competitor now cutting any appearance of impropriety with the retailer through a vendor relationship, Wal-Mart's political ties are in the limelight at the moment. Obama officially gave a reason of "increased demands on her time" when resigning from TreeHouse. Are you convinced?

Was Obama's resignation a response to her husband's comments or a way to try and head off dirt digging by political opponents hoping to get their claws into Mr. Obama's heels as he turns up the heat on his Presidential run? With Wal-Mart the target of organized labor (like it always will be), the chess move here by Mrs. Obama is a curious one. Or, perhaps there's no motive at all beyond how she explained it.

Where are people making money? According to Jim Cramer on tonight's MAD MONEY, it's in the LBO market. He noted that KKR is actually down in Netherlands since coming public. If you're going to make some money, you'll need to get close to an LBO, and tonight Cramer recommended a private label food company called TreeHouse Foods Inc. (NYSE:THS) as a great play in LBOs. The company is, among other things, the leading supplier of private-label pickles and non-dairy powdered creamer in the U.S.

The soup and baby food units and others are helping it. The company is not just a food company, it's a leveraged buyout play. The owners have done this before with Keebler by flipping it to Kellogg Company (NYSE:K). He thinks THS is worth betting on. The food business is slow and non-growth in general, but this company is an acquisition company and it is growing earnings with select acquisitions.

He has profiled THS before, but the company has grown since. Now it has a high enough share price to go out and make deals -- so he would be a buyer of THS right now even at the 52-week high.

THS has a $18.33 to $30.50 52-week trading range. THS closed up 1.5% at $30.64, a new 52-week high and above the old high noted from Friday; it traded up another 4% to $32.00 after Cramer touted this stock.

Jon Ogg is a partner in 24/7 Wall St., LLC; he does not own securities in the companies he covers. [Photo Stefan Powell]