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WASHINGTON (AP) - First lady Michelle Obama's campaign for healthier school lunches has stalled in Congress after anti-hunger groups and more than 100 Democrats protested the use of food stamp dollars to pay for it.
Passage of the child nutrition bill, which would improve lunches in schools and expand feeding programs for low-income students, has been a priority for Democrats and hunger groups for years. But the groups and many members of the House switched sides when leaders proposed a vote on a Senate-passed version of the legislation that uses future funding for food stamp programs to pay for part of the $4.5 billion cost.
One hundred and six Democrats wrote House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in August calling the move egregious, saying it was not a vote they would take lightly. Labor unions, anti-poverty groups and even New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also urged the speaker to reconsider using the food stamp money.
"It's just plain wrong," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., a longtime advocate for childhood nutrition programs. "The way you are going to pay for a child nutrition bill is by dipping into people's food stamps? Give me a break."
The first lady has lobbied aggressively for the legislation as part of her "Let's Move" campaign to combat childhood obesity. A spokeswoman for Mrs. Obama said Wednesday that she had "made extensive outreach" to Pelosi and other members of House leadership over the past several weeks.
To no avail. Democrats declined to take up the bill before the November elections, citing many of their members' concerns about the food stamp dollars. Many Republicans opposed the bill as well, saying it was too expensive.
Supporters had hoped to pass the bill before Thursday, when many of the child nutrition programs in the bill are scheduled to expire. An extension of those programs was included in a stopgap bill that will keep the government operating for the next two months, and supporters will try again to pass the nutrition bill when Congress returns to Washington after the elections.
If passed, the new nutrition standards would not remove popular foods like hamburgers from schools completely, but would make them healthier, using leaner meat or whole wheat buns, for example. Vending machines could be stocked with less candy and fewer high-calorie drinks.
Creation of new standards, which public health advocates have sought for a decade, has unprecedented support from many of the nation's largest food and beverage companies. The two sides came together on the issue as public pressure to remove junk foods from schools increased.
Congressional passage of the bill would be only the first step. Decisions on what kinds of foods could be sold - and what ingredients may be limited - would be left up to the Agriculture Department.
Supporters said they were hopeful the bill could be passed after the elections. McGovern said he was working with the White House to find a new way to pay for it.
Jim Weill, president of the Food Research and Action Center, said he doesn't buy the argument that the House should use the food stamp money for child nutrition because it will just be used for something else. Lawmakers have been eyeing the dollars for other priorities if it isn't used for the bill.
"If people fight back, it's not inevitable," Weill said.
Michelle Obama portrait debuts at Smithsonian
AP – This undated handout image provided by the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery shows a screenprint …
By BRETT ZONGKER, Associated Press Writer Brett Zongker, Associated Press Writer
–
Sat Aug 21, 12:31 pm ET
WASHINGTON – Move over Martha Washington. Martha
Stewart and Michelle Obama are getting space in the National Portrait
Gallery in Washington for the first time.
A new exhibit, "Americans Now," opened Friday, featuring famous names from science, business, government and the arts.
President Barack Obama and the first lady are among
those portrayed. It's the first time Michelle Obama's individual
portrait has been shown at the gallery.
Familiar names in the collection also include actor
Tom Hanks and music artists Willie Nelson and LL Cool J. Video portraits
in the exhibit feature late-night comedians Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and
David Letterman, as well as actor George Clooney and NBA star LeBron
James.
The portraits are on view through July 2011.
Michelle gears up for campaign role
By: Glenn
Thrush and Amie Parnes
May 8, 2010 07:00 AM EDT
A political
coming-out party of sorts took place this week — with Michelle
Obama headlining a Democratic National Committee event in
Washington that raised more than $1 million, with the first lady as the
primary draw.
Obama’s aides have begun working on the first lady’s political calendar
for the fall – balancing the requests of Democratic candidates against
the demands of motherhood and Obama’s own desire not to be seen as an
overtly partisan figure, several administration sources tell POLITICO.
For the first time since she moved into the White House, senior West
Wing officials have begun briefing Michelle Obama on her top policy
priorities, and as part of her preparation.
“She’s a hot commodity,” says one senior Democratic official. “Her
numbers
are better
than the president’s and she’s a strong surrogate. People like her.
If I were the White House, I’d send her out even more.”
All this seems to add up to the start of a serious political push, but
one question remains:
Is Michelle Obama, who felt burned by negative coverage during the early
days of the 2008 presidential campaign,
willing to
open herself up to the same scrutiny by stumping for Democratic
candidates in 2010?
“First and foremost, she has to prioritize the interests of her two
young children, then she’s the first lady of the United States,” said a
senior administration official. “Then, if she has the time, she would
help the president support good Democrats.”
Her staff was so reluctant to say she’ll jump into the political fray,
they made a point of telling a pool reporter traveling with Obama to the
Democratic event Friday that “FLOTUS would not be unveiling any
campaign plans for the fall” at the DNC event.
So far, Obama has made few commitments, apart from an appearance
alongside embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) at a
women’s event in Nevada. Technically, it’s a non-political event,
although several Democrats said it will help Reid’s political fortunes.
Her name is on the wish list of headliners for Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and
Democratic Governors Association events, senior Democrats tell POLITICO.
One Democratic operative involved in Hill races said President Barack
Obama and Vice President
Joe Biden
are still the top draws – but that “she’s pretty popular… people want
her out there.”
On Friday, Obama previewed what seemed like a midterm stump speech, a
litany of her husband’s accomplishments that tracked closely to the
president’s recent “Main Street” speeches stressing his job-creation
efforts.
“In the months leading up to this
November and beyond, we’re going to need you to get out there and get it
done, because we know that change -- we do know that change doesn’t
happen overnight,” she told the DNC’s Women’s Leadership Forum at the
Washington Hilton.
“We know that progress doesn’t happen without struggle and sacrifice,”
she added. “This stuff is supposed to be hard. It takes folks like you,
folks who are constantly rejecting the cynicism, casting aside the
doubts, and working day after day to continue what we’ve already
started.”
Later in the day, at a White House event with former first lady Rosalynn
Carter, Obama displayed the getting-to-know you style of a new next
door neighbor that has won over many skeptics.
With her mother looking on, the first lady spoke emotionally about how
happy she was to have Marian Robinson – she called her “my mommy” --
living in the White House.
“This woman who tries to take absolutely no credit for who I am –- for
some reason -- she is my rock, she has pulled me up when I struggled,
pulled me back in line when I talk too much,” Obama said, fighting back
tears. “She has always, always, always been there for me.”
Over the next few weeks, East and West Wing officials will hash out her
fall schedule, sifting through dozens of requests from politicians, like
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) who want her on the stump.
And there are more personal considerations. Mrs. Obama can appear
relaxed, self-deprecating and disarmingly down-to-earth in front of
audiences in her role as first lady. But she’s reluctant to engage in
more overt politicking and acutely conscious of the consequent dangers
to her reputation.
From the start of the 2008 campaign, Hillary Clinton’s campaign told
reporters that Michelle Obama was out of the mainstream, with more
radical views on race and politics that her husband. In February of that
year, she created a firestorm by telling an audience in Milwaukee, “For
the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.”
That incident, and the deluge of bad press it caused, had a profound
impact on Obama, even though she quickly recovered her footing and
became the president’s best surrogate in the succeeding months.
These days, there’s no shortage of demand for her
appearances. And after months spent settling in and adjusting the
spotlight, the first lady has upped her game in recent months. While she
hasn’t turned the East Wing into the power center Hillary Clinton tried
to make it, she has become a force on childhood
obesity and goodwill ambassador to Haiti and Mexico.
She’s also quietly made the rounds at the federal agencies and hosted a
series of regular 40-person lunches at the White House, inviting the
spouses of senators, members of Congress and the diplomatic corps.
“She has definitely turned it up a notch,” said one White House aide,
adding, that she’s more “in the loop” than she’s ever been.
The change was palpable to those who attended a Congressional Club event
for spouses at the Washington Hilton two weeks ago.
“Last year she was new and the tone was more feel-good…It was very much,
‘Thank you for being here and looking forward to getting to know you,’”
said Dan Dahlkemper, who is married to Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper (D-Pa.)
and attended the luncheon.
During this year’s lunch, Dahlkemper noticed that “she’s really stepping
into her role and she brought that message loud and clear to her talk.”
Dahlkemper said the first lady briefly mentioned health care and talked
about childhood obesity and nutrition, Haiti and veterans.
“She speaks strongly but she connects really well,” Dahlkemper said.
Dahlkemper said he would expect Obama to continue to drive her message
when she meets with Senate spouses at their lunch next week. The lunch
will provide some face-to-face time with former Bush Labor Secretary
Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell; Gail
Huff, Scott Brown’s wife; and Honey Alexander, aides said.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton
University, said that Obama is an asset to the administration's message.
"While the President contains his emotion, the first lady shows her
emotions a little more comfortably," he said, adding that Obama is "an
extremely strong first lady with very strong opinions
.
Robin Givhan examines Michelle Obama's first trip abroad alone
By Robin Givhan Tuesday, April 13, 2010; C01
On Tuesday, first lady Michelle Obama will travel abroad. She has already visited nine countries since moving into the White House. But this time, when she arrives in Mexico, she will be a solo star on the world stage. Her three-day journey to Mexico City will be her first official foreign trip alone -- without the president and without her children. She will use it to amplify and articulate a singular message to young people: self-determination.
Recent first ladies have often been at their most provocative when they've traveled abroad. As first lady, Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to China for the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 to deliver a major address. In the weeks leading up to her speech, Clinton administration officials debated whether it was wise for her to go, whether she should confront China on its human rights abuses and how it should be done. She ended up delivering her now-famous speech in which she equated women's rights and human rights. "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference," Clinton said, "it is that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights once and for all."
Observers worried that the comments would turn out to be politically devastating. But in an interview with reporters after the fact, Clinton said: "We are working towards having a very comprehensive and hopefully good relationship with China in many areas. For me, it was important to express how I felt and to do so as clearly as I could."
In 2002, when Laura Bush was in Prague on her first overseas trip alone, she delivered a 13-minute address on Radio Free Europe in which she stumped for women's rights in Afghanistan. "I want you to know that the isolation the Taliban regime forced on you is not normal," she said. "Before the Taliban, women were elected representatives in Afghanistan's parliament and women were a vital part of Afghanistan's life. I hope you will be again, because a society can only achieve its full potential when all of its members participate." The comments were broadcast to 28 countries, including Afghanistan.
In 2005, Bush followed up with a visit, under heavy security, to a teacher training institute.
"When I first interviewed with her in 2004, that was the first thing she said, 'I want to go to Afghanistan,' " recalls Anita McBride, her chief of staff from 2005 to 2009. "She'd been talking about going. She'd been meeting with Afghan women quietly at the White House. But she had been prevented from going for a number of reasons. That was my first responsibility."
* * *
In embarking on her first solo trip, Obama is following an agenda that her staff will describe only in the broadest of terms: It is meant to underscore "the president's commitment to advancing mutual interests, mutual respect and mutual responsibility between nations and peoples around the world."
But in the days before her departure, the East Wing got more specific and more ambitious, declaring the trip "the kickoff of the first lady's international agenda," with a focus on "youth engagement." Most of the world's population is under the age of 25, said an administration official, and "as a society we have a responsibility to support and nurture them."
Obama will be in Mexico City for a total of about 40 hours and is not expected to travel outside the capital. She will speak to young people -- from primary-school students to recent college graduates -- encouraging them to become active in their communities and take responsibility for their own future.
The Obama White House, over the course of a year and a half, has been particularly attentive to Mexico, and the first lady's trip underscores the breadth and depth of this country's relationship with its southern neighbor. According to the White House, 1 million people cross the U.S.-Mexico border every day and $1 billion in trade passes through that border every 24 hours.
When President Obama traveled to Mexico in April 2009, he noted: "There is a reason why the first visit that I had with a foreign leader after my election was with President [Felipe] Calderón. It was a reminder, as John F. Kennedy said, that the bonds between our two countries cannot be broken."
In February of this year, Mexican first lady Margarita Zavala visited Michelle Obama in the White House, where the two reportedly discussed obesity -- Obama's signature issue and a problem that also plagues Mexico -- as well as diabetes, addictions and undocumented minors in the United States.
On May 19, the Mexican president and first lady will be the guests of honor at a White House state dinner -- the second such dinner organized by the Obama administration and the first for new social secretary Julianna Smoot. (Decisions related to the dinner and the first lady's visit were discussed at the same time but not strictly coordinated. The timing of the two events was more of a coincidence, according to an administration official.)
Michelle Obama, 46, and Zavala, 42, have met on several occasions -- although Obama has never been to Mexico and does not speak Spanish -- and have more than a few things in common. "Both are lawyers. Both are women with a story and a career of their own," says Rossana Fuentes Berain, a media executive in Mexico, who is also friendly with Zavala. Both women decided to "step back for a while and let their husbands take the front role, allowed them to have their life dream of public service."
Both women also have made the welfare of children the centerpiece of their agenda as first lady. Zavala has been especially focused on migrant youth. The two women will have a private meeting at Los Pinos, the residence of the Mexican president and first lady. The couple also will host Obama at a dinner.
Obama will arrive in Mexico in the aftermath of the H1N1 epidemic that shut down much of Mexico's capital last year and wounded the tourism industry. The U.S. recession, devastating to many communities here, sent massive tremors through the Mexican economy thanks to a declining demand for Mexican exports. The flow of money into Mexican villages and towns from migrant workers living in the United States also dried up as jobs disappeared.
Most recently, the drug-gang violence concentrated along the border between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso has spawned deadly shootings. Last month, gunmen ambushed and killed three people connected to the U.S. Consulate in Juarez. As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton led a delegation of Cabinet officials to Mexico in March. In her remarks, she noted that the appetite for illegal drugs in the United States and this country's failed anti-narcotics policies have contributed to the rampaging violence.
Although the first lady has been briefed on the drug trafficking, there are no plans to raise the issue during her largest event: an address to high school and university students. Still, "it's pretty hard to ignore the here and now," McBride noted. "If something is in the news, sensitive or not, you have to respond to it in some way."
* * *
First ladies have a long history of ruffling feathers on the international stage, venturing into dangerous territory, or at least speaking their mind, says Myra Gutin, a historian who focuses on the lives of presidential spouses. Eleanor Roosevelt went to England to survey damage from the German blitzkrieg, Gutin says. She went to the South Pacific to visit troops, even as Congress complained that the trip was a wasteful taxpayer expense. Roosevelt returned with missives from the soldiers to their friends and relatives.
Pat Nixon traveled to Peru after a devastating earthquake in order to deliver a planeload of supplies, and, Gutin says, Rosalynn Carter went to South America and engaged in formal talks with officials on human rights -- much to the displeasure of South American officials.
Often, though, first ladies spend a significant part of their time on the road engaged in cultural affairs. Michelle Obama, for instance, will tour the Museo Nacional de Antropología (National Museum of Anthropology). It would be unwise to be dismissive of visits to museums, landmarks and such, even though they don't have the drama of, say, flying into a war-torn country on a plane filled with care packages, McBride says. "I'd have to argue on behalf of cultural events. It's a recognition of cultural identity; it's something countries see as significant and important to who they are," McBride says. "When you visit a cultural institution or a performing arts event, in the world of diplomacy, it matters. It matters in a big way."
The American first lady is also uniquely influential on the world stage. "No other spouse of a head of state has a de facto government position," Gutin says. "It's intentionally fuzzy. As the first lady, you have a chance to assert in a quiet way, 'I speak for the government.' Or to say, 'I don't speak for the government.' You can have it both ways."
As a result, the first lady can serve as the most humane face of an administration. "It gives you the freedom to be a representative of the country in the most positive way," McBride says. "Our country looks to the first lady to be a goodwill ambassador."
And goodwill always counts as an asset on the balance sheet. "She's choosing her first international visit to be done to the neighbor that is in trouble," Berain says. "When the dust settles, you remember who called you."
U.S. first lady leads charge against obesity
Thu, Jan 28 2010
By JoAnne Allen
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (Reuters) - U.S. health officials have leveraged the star power of first lady Michelle Obama to roll out a new campaign against obesity, a preventable condition that drains billions of dollars from the economy.
Obama, who plans to take on childhood obesity as a cause, headlined the launch on Thursday of Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's blueprint for what can be done at home, school and work to reverse the epidemic.
In her first initiative since becoming "America's doctor," Benjamin issued a report on the consequences of obesity to start a national dialogue on the subject.
"The number of Americans, like me, who are struggling with their weight and health conditions related to their weight remains much too high," she said.
Benjamin's report lists recommendations for preventing obesity. They range from simply eating more fruit and vegetables to adding "high-quality physical education" in schools and bringing more supermarkets to low-income communities.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the launch that the Obama administration was investing $650 million in economic stimulus money in wellness and prevention programs aimed at obesity and stopping smoking.
She introduced the first lady as "everyone's favorite vegetable gardener."
Obama, who created a White House garden with local school children, said the solution to the obesity epidemic cannot come from government alone. Everyone has to be willing to do their part to end the public health crisis.
"This will not be easy and it won't happen overnight. And it won't happen simply because the first lady has made it her priority," Obama told an audience of children's advocates at a recreation center in Alexandria, outside Washington.
"It's going to take all of us. Thank God it's not going to be solely up to me."
Two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese -- a condition that increases their risk for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
The United States spends nearly $150 billion a year on obesity and related complications -- twice what it cost in 1998 and more than every cancer cost put together, Sebelius said.
"The unhealthier we are as a nation, the more our health care costs will continue to rise and the less competitive we will be globally," she said.
(Editing by Chris Wilson)
Michelle Obama thesis was on racial divide By: Jeffrey Ressner February 22, 2008 04:20 PM EDT
Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton University, obtained from the campaign by Politico, shows a document written by a young woman grappling with a society in which a black Princeton alumnus might only be allowed to remain "on the periphery." Read the full thesis here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
"My experiences at Princeton have made me far more aware of my 'blackness' than ever before," the future Mrs. Obama wrote in her thesis introduction. "I have found that at Princeton, no matter how liberal and open-minded some of my white professors and classmates try to be toward me, I sometimes feel like a visitor on campus; as if I really don't belong. Regardless of the circumstances underwhich I interact with whites at Princeton, it often seems as if, to them, I will always be black first and a student second."
The thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community" and written under her maiden name, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson, in 1985, has been the subject of much conjecture on the blogosphere and elsewhere in recent weeks, as it has been "temporarily withdrawn" from Princeton's library until after this year's presidential election in November. Some of the material has been written about previously, however, including a story last year in the Newark Star Ledger.
Obama writes that the path she chose by attending Princeton would likely lead to her "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant."
During a presidential contest in which the term "transparency" has been frequently bandied about, candidates have buried a number of potentially revealing documents and papers. In Hillary Rodham Clinton's case, there's been a clamoring for tax records, White House memos and other material the candidate's team has chosen to keep from release. The 96-page Princeton thesis, restricted from release by the school's Mudd Library, has also been the subject of recent scrutiny.
Earlier this week, commentator Jonah Goldberg remarked on National Review Online, "A reader in the know informs me that Michelle Obama's thesis ... is unavailable until Nov. 5, 2008, at the Princeton library. I wonder why."
"Why a restricted thesis?" asked blogger-pastor Louis Lapides on his site Thinking Outside the Blog. "Is the concern based on what's in the thesis? Will Michelle Obama appear to be too black for white America or not black enough for black America?"
Attempts to retrieve the document through Princeton proved unsuccessful, with school librarians having been pestered so much for access to the thesis that they have resorted to reading from a script when callers inquire about it. Media officers at the prestigious university were similarly unhelpful, claiming it is "not unusual" for a thesis to be restricted and refusing to discuss "the academic work of alumni."
The Obama campaign, however, quickly responded to a request for the thesis by Politico. The thesis offers several fascinating insights into the mind of Michelle Obama, who has been a passionate advocate of her husband's presidential aspirations and who has made several controvesial statements, including this week's remark, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." That comment has fueled debate on countless blogs, radio talk shows and cable news for days on end, causing her to explain the statement in greater detail.
The 1985 thesis provides a trove of Michelle Obama's thoughts as a young woman, with many of the paper's statements describing the student's world as seen through a race-based prism.
"In defining the concept of identification or the ability to identify with the black community," the Princeton student wrote, "I based my definition on the premise that there is a distinctive black culture very different from white culture." Other thesis statements specifically pointed to what was seen by the future Mrs. Obama as racially insensitive practices in a university system populated with mostly Caucasian educators and students: "Predominately white universities like Princeton are socially and academically designed to cater to the needs of the white students comprising the bulk of their enrollments."
To illustrate the latter statement, she pointed out that Princeton (at the time) had only five black tenured professors on its faculty, and its "Afro-American studies" program "is one of the smallest and most understaffed departments in the university." In addition, she said only one major university-recognized group on campus was "designed specifically for the intellectual and social interests of blacks and other third world students." (Her findings also stressed that Princeton was "infamous for being racially the most conservative of the Ivy League universities.")
Perhaps one of the most germane subjects approached in the thesis is a section in which she conveyed views about political relations between black and white communities. She quotes the work of sociologists James Conyers and Walter Wallace, who discussed "integration of black official(s) into various aspects of politics" and notes "problems which face these black officials who must persuade the white community that they are above issues of race and that they are representing all people and not just black people," as opposed to creating "two separate social structures."
To research her thesis, the future Mrs. Obama sent an 18-question survey to a sampling of 400 black Princeton graduates, requesting the respondents define the amount of time and "comfort" level spent interacting with blacks and whites before they attended the school, as well as during and after their University years. Other questions dealt with their individual religious beliefs, living arrangements, careers, role models, economic status, and thoughts about lower class blacks. In addition, those surveyed were asked to choose whether they were more in line with a "separationist and/or pluralist" viewpoint or an "integrationist and/or assimilationist" ideology.
Just under 90 alums responded to the questionnaires (for a response rate of approximately 22 percent) and the conclusions were not what she expected. "I hoped that these findings would help me conclude that despite the high degree of identification with whites as a result of the educational and occupational path that black Princeton alumni follow, the alumni would still maintain a certain level of identification with the black community. However, these findings do not support this possibility."
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