Use mysql DATE_FORMAT in Python

Hello guys.. I was wondering if any of you tried using DATE_FORMAT in python? you see I'm trying to format one of my field using date_format but the problem is when I try to run it in python it gives an error since % symbol is reserved char for python here is my python code

def get_announcement(con):
    try:
        c = con.cursor(DictCursor)
        query = """
                SELECT 
                    id,
                    page_id,
                    title,
                    contents,
                    bnr_img,
                    DATE_FORMAT(start_date, '%M %D, %Y'),
                    DATE_FORMAT(end_date, '%M %D, %Y')
                FROM announcement
                ORDER BY id DESC;                                    
                """
        c.execute(query)
        dbres = c.fetchall()
        if not dbres: return None
        return dbres
    finally:
        if c: c.close()

But the problem is i cant get this to work since python is complaining about the formatting of the start_date and end_date do you have any idead on how to solve this in a query way. As much as possible I dont want to let python do the date formatting for me instead I want to retrieve the data that has been formatted already in mysql

Please give me your idead and answers thanks and more power

Tags: Python (Python 2.3, Python 2.4, Python2.7)