Recently in Michelle Obama Category

On a trip to Denver on Monday for a mentoring event with high school girls, First Lady Michelle Obama talked about how as a kid she was anxious and nervous when she had to take tests. Read my story on this here.

First Lady Michelle Obama's Veterans Day included a visit with President Obama to Arlington Cemetery, breakfast with veterans and a speech bolstering a community service program aimed at helping active and retired military families. Read my column herewhere I note that Mrs. Obama's remarks dealing with Fort Hood--do not touch on the horrible circumstances of the murders. Speech transcript at click.

WASHINGTON--President Obama and First Lady Michelle are en route to Fort Hood, Texas on Tuesday morning to attend a service for the victims of last weeks shooting spree. Last May, Mrs. Obama taped a segment to run today--the 40th anniversary of "Sesame Street"--where she talks with three kids, Elmo and Big Bird about planting a vegetable garden. Read my full story about Mrs. Obama--and other first ladies--on the show here.

Click below to see Mrs. Obama's segment

Sam Kass in the White House garden (top) Kass with students (below) (Photos by Lynn Sweet)

WASHINGTON -- A lot of lives have changed since Barack Obama won the presidential election one year ago last Wednesday, none so much as the life of Chicago's Sam Kass, the engaging, shaved-head assistant White House chef and food initiative coordinator, a crusader for healthy eating who has shot to fame in the almost 10 months the Obamas have been in the White House.

First Lady Michelle Obama launches a White House mentoring program on Monday, starting with a session of girls from Washington area schools paired with women from the White House East and West Wings. On Wednesday, Mrs. Obama hosts classical music stars for a White House Music Series event, to include a workshop with music students. My story on Mrs. Obama's week ahead is here.

(White House photo) Jill Biden, Michelle Obama at Game One of the 2009 World Series at the new Yankee Stadium.

WASHINGTON--President Obama and First Lady Michelle don't have identical wedding rings, just redecorated the White House residence and have wrestled with their marriage through the years, says the cover story in the Sunday New York Times Magazine by Jodi Kantor. But living together in the White House has eased strains in the marriage that existed when Obama was an Illinois state senator, Illinois senator and on the road campaigning for the White House. My column on what's new in the New York Times article is here.

The Obama marriage has been put under the microscope before. Politics Daily editor-in-chief Melinda Henneberger wrote a series in Slate you can find here.

WASHINGTON--First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Jill Biden will be in New York tonight for the World Series opener with the Yankees hosting the Philadelphia Phillies. A native South Sider, Mrs. Obama grew up watching the Cubs. For more on this--and her tennis game--she told Jay Leno on Friday she gets beat by President Obama--check out my story here.

What is certain about the presidency of Barack Obama--whether one term or two--is that there will be an Obama presidential library some place in the United States. Given that Chicago is Obama's adopted home town, where First Lady Michelle was born and the city where he launched his political career, it is hard to imagine that the library won't be in Chicago.

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Michelle Obama at Breast Cancer Awareness event (photo by Lynn Sweet)

Read my story on First Lady Michelle Obama touting President Obama's health reform legislation and breast cancer awareness here.

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia, sit for a family portrait in the Green Room of the White House, Sept. 1, 2009. (Official White House Photo)

Photo by Annie Leibovitz/Released by White House Photo Office

Mrs. Obama on the South Lawn on Wednesday. (AP)

First lady Michelle Obama exercises with a hula hoop during a healthy kids fair on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. (AP)

First lady Michelle Obama adds arm exercises as she hula hoops during a healthy kids fair on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday. (AP)

First lady Michelle Obama hula hoops with children during a healthy kids fair Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP)

A group of children at rear watch as first lady Michelle Obama exercises by jumping rope during a healthy kids fair on the South Lawn of the White House on Wednesday. (AP)

First lady Michelle Obama is barefoot as she competes in a race during a healthy kids fair Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP)

First lady Michelle Obama watches children eat something healthy Wednesday on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP)

(Jailbreak Toys)

WASHINGTON--The latest commercial use of the image of First Lady Michelle Obama comes from Jailbreak Toys, coming out next month with six-inch plastic "action figures" of the first lady. She's for sale--the toy that is--for $12.99.

The doll is made wearing three dresses, all from notable days Mrs. Obama had the campaign trail; read my story about the dolls and the clothes here.

One of the outfits on the doll is the dress Mrs. Obama wore on ABC's "The View" on June 18, 2008 during the campaign. That's the show where Mrs. Obama confessed she did not wear panty hose. My blog post about Mrs. Obama's panty hose confession here.

First Lady Michelle Obama talks with, from left, Chicago 2016 board member Marty Nesbitt, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Education Secretary Arne Duncan aboard Air Force One prior to departure from Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct. 2, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

WASHINGTON--This photo from the White House captures some of the central Chicago and Illinois figures in the Obama White House en route to Washington from Copenhagen where they pitched Chicago for the 2016 Olympics--only to be stunned to have Chicago come in last.

WASHINGTON--The prime minister of India will be the first national leader honored by the Obama White House. The White House social office, headed by Desiree Rogers, is working on the Nov. 24 event. I write about state dinners thrown by the Bush and Clinton White House and the upcoming Obama dinner here.

August, 2006, in Nairobi, Kenya: Then Sen. Barack Obama, wife Michelle, daughters Sasha, Malia and other children help plant tree with 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai. (Photo by Lynn Sweet)

WASHINGTON--How can this great honor given to President Obama on Friday, the Nobel Peace Prize, be seen through American lenses as anything but premature? Obama gets the prize less than nine months into his presidency, on the very day he is meeting with his war cabinet--his national security team--to wrestle with ongoing battles in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Genealogist Megan Smolenyak explains how she researched Mrs. Obama's roots at Roots Television

The New York Times has an in-depth article on the family history of First Lady Michelle Obama. Her great great great grandparents include the enslaved Melvinia Shields and, as the New York Times said, "the unknown white man who impregnated her."

Click here for an interactive graphic of the Michelle Obama family tree, put together with the help of genealogist Megan Smolenyak

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/08/us/politics/20091008-obama-family-tree.html