# I \[heart\] Michelle Obama
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 20, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182 "2009-03-20T16:42:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2009, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/21 "2009-03-21T17:19:20Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> You’re crumbling. Soon…soon…
Don’t hold your breath. That is, unless, you want to turn even bluer than you are now.
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### Author:  [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/22 "2009-03-21T19:28:07Z")
I guess I’m just bumfuzzled that the White House didn’t already have a kitchen garden somewhere. You’d think one of the chefs would have put up a fuss about it before now.
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### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2009, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/23 "2009-03-22T00:14:56Z")
I would think it’s easier to just have the food trucked in. We really don’t need to grow our own vegetables any more, unless you’re a commercial farmer. It does take time and dedication. But the one year we grew a garden I didn’t have to buy salad stuff all summer. I had leaf lettuce and tomatoes, and the carrots grew all twisted because we didn’t get all the rocks out, but boy, were they full of flavor, and the kids brought their friends over to sneak the blueberries off the bushes so Ivylad and I never got any, and the cantaloupe vines grew through the fence and we ended up picking them when they were ripe from the front yard, and I’d come home and pluck some green tomatoes to fry them up. It really was a lot of fun.
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### Author:  [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2009, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/24 "2009-03-22T02:17:03Z")
Ivylass, yep that is easier, but, this year, there is a really huge flood of people coming in to garden professionals to learn how to grow vegetables at home, way beyond the norm in the past few years. It’s directly linked to the economy, and, I’m glad to see it: it shows that people really have an interest in taking care of themselves, in any small way.
Every garden center here is selling out of seeds early because of that interest, and, though my nursery doesn’t sell seeds, we are respected for good plant knowledge, and I’m fielding more calls and folks coming in wanting to know how they can grow their own food. I’ve never seen this huge groundswell of interest before.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/25 "2009-03-30T20:09:27Z")
Btw, for those interested in the swingset, they’ve added cushioning underneath made out of recycled tires. There a [picture of it here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/30/greening-the-white-house-_n_180602.html).
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### Author:  [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)
#### Post date: [March 30, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/26 "2009-03-30T21:41:11Z")
> [@freckafree](#):
>
> (Pres. Obama doesn’t care for beets?!? And I thought the man was perfect.)
More beets for us!
Mr President is kinda scary-perfect isn’t he? I was watching the General Motors speech this morning at the gym, and his enunciation is so good the close captioning hardly misspelled anything. Of course, it put in a lot of extra periods, so the voice in may head was reading it like President Obama was doing a Captain Kirk imitation.
**CrazyCatLady** , I think no WH chef has bothered with a garden before because there’s no way an amateur’s garden could keep up with the amount of food the WH must serve everyday.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/27 "2009-04-30T20:14:16Z")
Rather than start a new thread, I thought I’d resurrect this one. I hope it’s not considered a zombie thread. I came across a photo thread that I thought I had posted here but hadn’t, so even though it’s a few weeks old, here you go:
[The First Lady working in the garden](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8331847)
And as long as I’m here, here are a few other nice Michelle photo threads:
Michelle and Jill (Biden) working at the Capital Area Food Bank from yesterday. ([1st set](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8378978&mesg_id=8378978), [2nd set](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8379248) with many more pictures) I love Michelle’s shoes!
[The First Lady and Queen Rania](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8367375) (just 1 picture)
[Take Your Child To Work Day](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8366105) at the White House
[100 Days of Michelle](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8372066) (most are pictures I’d seen, but some I hadn’t)
Michelle and her mom on the [cover of Essence](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8326566) (more photos [here](http://photos.essence.com/galleries/may_essence_issue_first_lady_michelle_obama__mom))
[The First Couple, the First 100 Days](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8373894)
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/28 "2009-04-30T20:20:04Z")
Missed the edit window. [These were posted](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8376714) in the “Ain’t I A Woman?” thread (which is worth a look just to read Sojourner Truth’s speech), but I should put them here too. Btw, I am NOT “Jackeens” who posts all these pics at DU, I’m just a fan of her threads.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/29 "2009-04-30T20:35:12Z")
> [@elelle](#):
>
> Ivylass, yep that is easier, but, this year, there is a really huge flood of people coming in to garden professionals to learn how to grow vegetables at home, way beyond the norm in the past few years. It’s directly linked to the economy, and, I’m glad to see it: it shows that people really have an interest in taking care of themselves, in any small way.
>
> Every garden center here is selling out of seeds early because of that interest, and, though my nursery doesn’t sell seeds, we are respected for good plant knowledge, and I’m fielding more calls and folks coming in wanting to know how they can grow their own food. I’ve never seen this huge groundswell of interest before.
It also has to do with the idea of local sustainable food. Sure, its easier to truck it in - but it uses less energy to grow it out back yourself. The more local you get the better it is. A garden and some chickens in your backyard is about as local as you can get…the farmers market or a CSA involves some transportation costs…importing your fruits from South America, not local.
Since most people’s gardening efforts are pretty small scale - you’ll need some water and maybe a gas tiller - its a better choice ecologically than a commercial farm which has pretty high energy costs.
I don’t garden, I planted tomatos last year and the deer ate them. But the whole garden to be greener (as well as it being cheaper) thing is big.
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### Author:  [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/30 "2009-04-30T21:44:37Z")
Yep, I adore her too. And Barack. In fact, I’d quite like your first couple to adopt me, is that ok?
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### Author:  [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/31 "2009-05-01T02:26:38Z")
Not to take anything away from the First Lady’s efforts, but the assertion that this is the first garden at the White House since WWII appears to be false.
> [@](#):
>
> As it turns out, Comerford actually has some serious sustainable-food street cred. The previous White House chef, Walter Scheib, pointed out in a recent blog post—and in two even more recent, in-depth interviews with the blog Obama Foodorama—that Comerford was unfairly dismissed by the foodie set before they even knew her credentials. “Poor Cris,” he told the blog. “She’s been treated like so many pounds of chopped liver.” Scheib was the White House executive chef from 1994 to 2005, and Comerford worked as one of his assistants, becoming his favorite associate and then taking over for him when he left. As he says of their time working together, “Nearly all the products used was [sic] obtained from local growers and suppliers, in many cases directly from farm stands and growers. There also was a small garden on the roof of the White House where produce was grown for the families’ use.” During the Clinton administration, Scheib spent a lot of his time on the job “fulfilling Hillary Clinton’s mandate of bringing contemporary American cuisine and nutritionally responsible food to the White House,” he says. More surprisingly, Scheib’s account suggests that the recent administration may have been even more sustainability-minded in matters of the home kitchen: “Laura Bush to her credit and probably to your readers [sic] surprise was adamant that in ALL CASES if an organic product was available it was to be used in place of a non-organic product,” he wrote on his blog, adding that Comerford has always supported and continues to support these principles of sustainability.
So we have an assertion that this goes back to the Clinton administration at least, and likely goes further back. The speculation about the chef’s kitchen above looks to be spot on.
[Link.](http://www.gourmet.com/foodpolitics/2009/01/white-house-chef-wars)
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2009, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/32 "2009-05-01T02:56:11Z")
I adore her and think that the world needs more women like her. She’s obviously extremely strong and confident, seems to be a good mother, and is _not_ in any sort of dependent relationship with her husband. She’s got (well, had) a solid career independent of her husband, but not at the expense of their relationship. I think she’s an excellent role model.
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2009, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/33 "2009-05-01T03:13:22Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Okay, that is seriously cool.
>
> Our Canadian politicians are looking more and more last-century now.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when we get a politician as savvy and 21st-century as Barack Obama. None of the current crop qualifies, but the next leader to fall might yield an interesting successor.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2009, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/34 "2009-05-06T07:09:05Z")
Oooh, check out [these pictures](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8392798) of Michelle at the Time100 Gala (she was chosen as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. There are more pictures and a [transcript of what she said here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/michelle-obama-at-time-10_n_197449.html).
Other tidbits…
Earlier she spoke at the United States Mission to the United Nations. Pictures, pool report and [transcript of her remarks here](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/michelle-obamas-sesame-st_n_197191.html). She also mentioned that she had filmed a Sesame Street!
[Cinco de Mayo pics](http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Jackeens/220), with schoolchildren, and later in the day with President Obama. [More pictures](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/cinco-de-mayo-michelle-ob_n_195866.html) and transcript of her full remarks. [Short video](http://www.politico.com/singletitlevideo.html?bcpid=1155201977&bctid=22055214001) of Michelle speaking to the children.
[Photos and story](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/02/obamas-have-date-night-at_n_195248.html) of the Obama’s most recent Date Night. [Raw video](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x307830) of the Obama’s date night walk around the White House grounds. I realize it is an invasion of their privacy, but they knew reporters and photographers were there, there are _always_ reporters and photographers there, and I can’t help but like it just because they 1) walk past the swingset and 2) it shows just how pretty and lush the White House grounds are.
12 female writers [share thoughts](http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/03/michelle-obama) about Michelle.
Michelle’s mom is [enjoying](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/us/politics/04robinson.html?_r=2&ref=us) the hell out of Washington.
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### Author:  [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2009, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/35 "2009-05-06T10:50:22Z")
I too am an admirer of Michelle Obama and it pisses me off no end when she makes a speech or visits a school and the only press coverage is “Wow - she’s got arms!” (yes, women come with arms these days - it’s all the rage).
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/36 "2009-05-06T15:41:03Z")
I like her a lot, and it’s obvious she and the President are very close. Their girls seem like they’re well on their way towards becoming smart, gracious and well-grounded women.
And I must say, the First Lady’s official White House portrait is very classy. O, the irony of having Thomas Jefferson smiling down at her!: [http://meshlife.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/michelle-obama.jpg](http://meshlife.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/michelle-obama.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-heart-michelle-obama/490182/37 "2009-05-13T02:42:48Z")
Some of the latest…
President and Mrs. Obama held a “Poetry Slam” at the White House and Michelle wore a crazy shirt man, [dig it](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8403775).
[Michelle spoke Tuesday](http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8403687) to about 250 employees of the Corporation for National and Community Service, the latest stop on her listening tour of the federal bureaucracy.
Michelle and her staff [went for burgers](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/michelle-obama-and-staff_n_200516.html) again, which is totally trivial, but I just like the idea that the President and Vice President can [go for burgers](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/rays-hell-burger-obama-bi_n_196896.html) (even if PresO gets [blasted by right wingers](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/obama-mustard-attack-beco_n_199953.html) for using mustard :rolleyes:), and so can the First Lady. It’s a very normal thing to do while in the middle of an abnormal lifestyle, so it makes me smile.
Speaking of normal, the Obamas [attended](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/08/obamas-visit-sidwell-frie_n_200487.html) a Parent-Teacher Conference at Malia’s school.
[Michelle](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/10/michelle-obama-at-white-h_n_201308.html) pretty in pink, and with bare arms, at the White House Correspondents Dinner
and
Michelle appeared in a [Sesame Street](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/07/michelle-obamas-sesame-st_n_198996.html) PSA.
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