Crush

I don’t usually pay much attention to First Ladies: they all have their pet projects that end up sounding like elitist Junior League attempts to seem compassionate and relevant.

While I applaud Laura Bush’s advocacy of reading and literacy, I’m not sure how much good she did or what she actually accomplished. It's one thing to talk about reading, but it's entirely another to convince you husband to spend money to advance your cause.

The only other ex-First Lady’s agenda I can remember is Betty Ford. And she didn’t come out about substance abuse until she was no longer a First Lady. A brave move on her part that I heartily applaud.

Nancy Reagan wore expensive clothes, defended her husband and ignored her children, a pattern that was long-established. She was a bulldog disguised as a fashion accessory.

Hillary Clinton learned that pant suits work best for her and had “It Takes a Village”, but she never really seemed that interested in family life. Politics was always her first love.

Michelle Obama intrigues me, though.

She doesn’t have to defend her husband, and she mixes designer clothes with “off-the-rack”. And as far I can tell, she has no political ambitions. Other than advancing the cause of helping families, military and otherwise.

She has excellent credentials, both as an attorney and an executive, but she doesn’t ever bring that up.

She lovingly mocks her husband—the President—on national TV, and he sits back and grins in a way that says “See why I married her?”

She moved her mother into the White House to help with the kids.

And it was her mother who was sitting by the President when the election was called in his favor.

She was taking care of the kids.

Now she’s planting a vegetable garden on the White House lawn for the first time since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden.

Mrs. Obama’s is a victory garden of a whole other sort. She’s fighting the war on obesity. Reminding people what good food tastes like. The kind I had when I was a kid. The kind I still seek out where I can find.

She’s also fighting a war for families, leading by example. Children need stability and always have. Even the children of Presidents. And it’s clear that the children come first for her.

She was a reluctant First Lady, but she campaigned for her husband, nevertheless. And now that she is, she intends to leverage her position in a way that no First Lady has done in my lifetime.

She talks about real issues that face families every day. And then sets an example for others to follow.

Talk about grace under pressure. She’s got it all.

I have a secret crush on her. I hope the President doesn't mind, but he shouldn't feel threatened by a middle-aged man who is patently gay.

I know why Mr. Obama grins like the cat that swallowed the canary when she ribs him a little.

He’s got it all. And he knows it.

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Read more:
NY Green Living Examiner: The White House Kitchen Garden and the power of symbolism
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