Michelle Obama: 'Leading' First Lady - "I feel like I've never left Chicago" (Trib)

[jefferson_dem]

Michelle Obama: 'Leading' First Lady
by Mark Silva


"I feel like I've never left Chicago,'' First Lady Michelle Obama said today in Washington - soccer on Saturdays, slumber parties for the girls' friends.

Add to the routine now: Walks before dawn with the first dog - which the girls are supposed to be taking care of. And leading a national effort to spur volunteerism.

All of this adds up to more evidence of why the president's wife quickly has soared in popularity among an American public who seems to have been taken with an Ivy League-trained lawyer who gardens on the back lawn - it has produced its first salad, reports the first lady whom Time magazine has added to its list of 100 "most influential people.''

"We have now been at the White House for 101 days,'' the first lady said today, officially marking the next phase of that 100-day stint that was so widely noted this week.

She was addressing a Congressional Club luncheon, which she plans to host once a month.

"On the family track, just to let you know, because everyone always asks, that we've never been better,'' she said. " The girls are happy and healthy. They love their school. They're making friends. They're getting good grades....

" I feel like I've never left Chicago,'' she said. " Soccer on Saturday -- yes, I'm on a soccer field all day -- just like many of you.

"Slumber parties -- we had about seven girls over, screaming and yelling, and we're shuttling kids back and forth to play dates, just like usual, although now my mom does a little more of the shuttling than I do. I'm glad to have her here....

" And the newest addition to the Obama family -- the most famous member of the family, Bo Obama -- is also doing well,'' she said of the first family's Portuguese water dog. "I have to say, he is the best puppy in the whole wide world. I love him to death.

"He is so sweet. But he's still a puppy... I got up at 5:15 a.m. in the morning to walk my puppy. That's how my day starts. Even though the kids are supposed to do a lot of the work, I'm still up at 5:15 a.m. taking my dog out. So for everyone who has a child asking for a puppy -- -- you have to want the dog. As I do. I love my Bo.''

<SNIP>

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/04/michelle_obama_leading_first_l.html

[glitch]

1. Their garden produced a salad already? They must have a greenhouse.

I'm jealous. Not of Bo because I have my own adorable puppy (3 yo). But a greenhouse? Very cool. I hope they do a gardening segment on whitehouse.gov.