"The Obamas" Rewrites First Lady's History

The last word on the new book, which ignores the global impact of the Kitchen Garden, gives the Let's Move! campaign short shrift, and turns Sam Kass into a footnote...
Obama Foodorama's MARIAN BURROS, a longtime reporter for The New York Times, had the first interview with Mrs. Obama about the Kitchen Garden, for the Times, on the eve of the groundbreaking in 2009. Burros writes:

Reporters who covered the first shovelful of dirt that was dug by Michelle Obama on March 20, 2009 to create the White House Kitchen Garden are scratching their heads over the short shrift the occasion was given in Jodi Kantor’s much-discussed new book, “The Obamas.”  As one of those reporters I, like my colleagues, have wondered how an event that occurred just two months to the day after Barack Obama was inaugurated and made the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country (including the newspaper Kantor works for, The New York Times) and every six o’clock newscast, could have been so studiously avoided in a book that purports to know how unhappy, how frustrated, not to mention, demanding, the First Lady was during the first two and one-half years of her husband’s Administration, in part, according to the book, because she didn’t have anything worthwhile to do.  (The photo at top was above the fold on the front page of the Times on March 20, 2009. Sam Kass is behind Mrs. Obama)

But what Kantor had promised the publisher that was worth a seven-figure advance, was how the two strong personalities of the President and First Lady would play out in the White House, something with which she was familiar from covering them during the primaries and in interviewing them about their marriage in 2009. To do this, Kantor had to do a little rearranging of history. She mentions the Kitchen Garden for the first time on page 138, about seven months after it was announced, and then only to belittle its impact. (Above: The President and Mrs. Obama at a reception in March of 2010)

By one year after the Kitchen Garden groundbreaking, Mrs. Obama was on the cover of Newsweek magazine, with the garden and her childhood obesity initiative, Let's Move! (formally launched in February, 2010) the centerpiece story. Mrs. Obama's garden had already caused people all over the world to plant their own gardens, some meticulously mimicking the 1,100 square feet of the one on the South Lawn. There was an uptick in seed sales for home gardeners in the US. The garden was the first thing world leaders asked her about when she traveled abroad, Mrs. Obama said. She hailed it as one of the greatest achievements of her life.

But only without accurately detailing the history of the Kitchen Garden is it possible for Kantor to write: “For the rest of the spring 2009, however, Michelle continued to struggle,” in part because “there was still no central project to her first ladyhood, no major goal into which she could pour her natural intensity.”

To acknowledge Mrs. Obama’s keen interest in the garden, a potentially game-changing moment in the almost intractable problem of getting children to eat fruits and vegetables, would have undermined Kantor’s premise about Mrs. Obama’s state of mind during the early days in the White House. As it is she can only infer from conversations with present and former White House staff, because neither Obama would give her an interview for the book. But it hasn’t stopped Kantor from drawing conclusions about Mrs. Obama’s moods.

Unhappiness and "small efforts"...
In Kantor’s version the First Lady sounds like a woman no one could satisfy. While acknowledging her strengths, Kantor describes Mrs. Obama as very demanding, a hard taskmaster, a perfectionist, overcritical, intense, obsessive about order. She says Mrs. Obama was "deeply frustrated” that she didn’t have a worthwhile project, that she was “struggling with the limits of life inside the White House.” (Above: Less than a month after breaking ground, Mrs. Obama planted the garden on April 9, 2009, which also was global headline news)

In the fall of 2009, Kantor writes, “Mrs. Obama was starting to work on a health care initiative of her own, a campaign to reduce and prevent childhood obesity. Her initial progress was very slow, and at first she was stuck on small efforts: the White House garden, a new farmers market on Pennsylvania Avenue, hula-hooping with youngsters on the South Lawn.”

To lump the garden with hula hooping, as effective as the pictures of Mrs. Obama doing 142 hula hoops revolutions was in making the point that exercise is important, is demeaning, but it serves the narrative of unhappiness in the White House.

How does Kantor know Mrs. Obama is unhappy? Aides told her.

“The First Lady was having an unhappy, difficult time in her new role,” according to advisors who are also the source of Kantor's comments about the First Lady's frustration because she wanted her husband to rely on her more and to listen when she told him Americans were not getting the message about the advantages of the Health Care bill.

Throughout the book Kantor inserts herself into the narrative, telling the reader what Mrs. Obama was thinking, telling the reader what conclusions to draw. When the Obamas paid a visit to a local school, Kantor writes: “a little girl told Michelle she wanted to grow up to be first lady. ‘Doesn’t pay much,’ she shot back. She was joking, but the message was clear.” She didn’t think much of the job, according to Kantor.

Really? Anyone who has covered Mrs. Obama at all, can’t imagine why anyone would read so much into one of her well-known humorous asides.

Kantor makes no mention of Mrs. Obama's childhood obesity work after the formal launch of the Let’s Move! campaign. There's no mention of her success in getting supermarkets to open stores in food deserts, places where it takes a car to get to a store that sells fresh fruits and vegetable. No mention of her really tough talk to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, telling them they needed to make dramatic changes in what they produce and advertise to children.

There's also just one mention in the book of Sam Kass (l), who now has the title of Senior Policy Advisor for Healthy Food Initiatives. Kass came to Washington from Chicago with the Obamas to cook for the First Family. He became the chief architect for the Let's Move! campaign, and oversees the Kitchen Garden. Yet when he is mentioned in the book it is not in connection with either. After Mrs. Obama, he is the face of the garden and the campaign. But the purpose of the book is not to discuss the wide-ranging impact Mrs. Obama has had, or to accurately portray history.

It is only to explore the First Lady's unhappiness. Mrs. Obama directly addressed the issue in a CBS interview earlier this week: "Who can write about what I feel? What third person can tell me what I feel?"

It’s why, she said, she hasn’t and won’t read the book.

“It's a game, in so many ways, that doesn't fit,” Mrs. Obama said.

But she was obviously troubled by the portrait she felt had been painted, telling the interviewer that she is “not an angry black woman.”

On the contrary, her success with the garden and promoting Let’s Move! has had an enormous impact on her popularity ratings, which are far higher than the President’s. What the unflattering comments about Mrs. Obama will do to her poll numbers, if anything, will be available in a poll from the Pew Research Center, which will be released in the next ten days. But the book does not acknowledge the success Mrs. Obama has had in significantly raising the profile of healthy foods and the huge problems caused by childhood obesity.

At the end of the book, Kantor has come to the conclusion that Mrs. Obama has adjusted, that the West Wing now understands how valuable she is to the Administration and has been making important contributions, the most recent of which is her military family initiative, Joining Forces, which Kantor describes as “politically astute.” Still, the author cannot resist one last dig, though some might see it as a compliment: “As one aide pointed out, Michelle Obama was a natural for military life square, ordered, strict.”

Kantor gets some simple facts wrong, too, things that a little research would have easily uncovered. Despite Kantor’s statement that there were no nutritional standards for school lunches before the most recent legislation passed, there certainly were and they were based on existing federal Dietary Guidelines. The newer standards, however, are more rigorous.

Kantor also writes that the State Floor of the White House, the public rooms, have not been redecorated since the Kennedy Administration. The Clinton Administration did a significant redo of the state rooms, decorating them in a style authentic to the period the house was built. The Kennedy redecoration was heavily French. BuzzFeed fact checked nine other facts critics have said are wrong in the book, and came up with an uneven score card.

In the end, the most telling quote in the book may be the one that comes from David Axelrod, a Senior Advisor and strategist for the President who said: “A lot of what we do is frankly bullshit. That’s the nature of government, it’s the nature of politics. What she is doing is very real. Michelle’s work may end up having more of an impact than many of the West Wing’s policy initiatives.”

This April, the First Lady will publish her own book, "American Grown." It is her first outing as an author, and it is about the Kitchen Garden.

Related posts about "The Obamas:" The White House statement about the book: "An overdramatization of old news." Press Secretary Jay Carney last week said a Mad Hatter Tea Party the Obamas hosted during Halloween 2009 was not a secret. White House reporters disagree.

*Editor's note: After retiring from The New York Times, Burros, an award-winning journalist and cookbook author, joined Obama Foodorama in late 2011. She is one of only two food policy writers on the planet to report on the First Lady's food intiatives FROM the White House since the beginning of the Administration. The other writer is the founder and editor of this blog.

*Photo at top by Todd Heisler for The New York Times. Planting photo by Samantha Appleton/White House; other photos by Eddie Gehman Kohan/Obama Foodorama

First Lady Michelle Obama Responds To New Book, Denies White House Tensions

Video of CBS interview: First Lady says "I love this job," and she is tired of "angry black woman" stereotype...
First Lady Michelle Obama says that depictions of White House friction in Jodi Kantor's new book "The Obamas" aren't true. In a wide-ranging interview with CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King that aired on Wednesday, Mrs. Obama spoke out against the story that characterizes her as a behind-the-scenes force with strong views that drew her into conflict with President Obama's Senior Advisers. The First Lady said she's tired of people stereotyping her as "some kind of angry black woman," and that the story of tensions between the East and West Wings are fictitious. Kantor, a New York Times correspondent, did not interview the President and Mrs. Obama for the book.

King visited the White House on Tuesday, and spoke to the First Lady in her East Wing office. Mrs. Obama said she hasn't read the book, but characterized Kantor's reporting as "a game, in so many ways, that doesn't fit."



"I never read these books. There are so many books that have my picture on the cover, my name on it, I don't even know what's going on," Mrs. Obama said. "Who can write about how I feel? What third person can tell me about how I feel?"

The First Lady has had little contact with her husband's Senior Advisors, she said, and put to rest the idea that there were problems with two in particular, former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

"I do care deeply about my husband," Mrs. Obama said. "I am one of his biggest allies. I am one of his biggest confidants." But she debunked "this notion that I sit in meetings."

"I don't have conversations with my husband's staff. I don't go to the meetings," Mrs. Obama said. "I guess it's more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here, a strong woman. But that's been an image that people have try to paint of me since the day that Barack announced, that I'm some angry black woman."

King asked specifically about an assertion of trouble between the First Lady and Emanuel, now the Mayor of Chicago. Mrs. Obama said she has "never had a cross word" with Emanuel.

"Rahm is -- and Amy, his wife, are some of our dearest friends," Mrs. Obama said.

Mrs. Obama joined Emanuel in Chicago last October for the first-ever Let's Move! Food Desert Summit.

The book reports that Gibbs cursed Mrs. Obama during a meeting dealing with the fallout from a book written by her French counterpart, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, which claimed that Mrs. Obama said living in the White House "was hell."

Mrs. Obama says she hadn't heard that at the time, and that Gibbs "is a trusted advisor. He's been a good friend and remains so."

"I can count the number of times I go over to the West Wing, period," Mrs. Obama said.

Kantor includes a chapter titled "The Lady Who Did Not Lunch," devoted to portraying Mrs. Obama as a reluctant First Lady who bristled at the demands and constraints of life in the White House, and writes that she did not want to attend events that are typically part of the First Lady's job, such as the annual Congressional Spouses Luncheon, which Mrs. Obama has attended each year since her husband became President, and will attend again this Spring.

"I love this job. It has been a privilege from day one," Mrs. Obama said.

She told King that there are plenty of challenges for the First Family, however.

"Now, there are challenges with being a mother and trying to keep your kids sane," Mrs. Obama said. "And I worry a lot about that. I mean, if there's any anxiety that I feel, it's because I want to make sure that my girls come out of this on the other end whole. But me, Barack, we're grown-ups. You know, all the ups and downs, we take it on."

Speaking with her co-anchors after the interview, King did not conceal that she is a personal friend of Mrs. Obama's, and praised the First Lady for not canceling the interview, which King said was scheduled months ago.

"We reached out to the First Lady before Christmas," King said.

The White House issued a statement last week characterizing the book as an "overdramatization of old news," and a briefing on Monday was devoted largely to battling the idea that parts of the Presidential Halloween party in 2009 were kept secret from the media. Not so, said the White House.

Kantor interviewed Gibbs for the book, along with 32 other current and former White House aides, including Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Mrs. Obama's then-Chief of Staff Susan Sher.

*CBS video

Down The Rabbit Hole: White House Says "Alice" Themed Mad Hatter Tea Party Wasn't A Secret

Not giving reporters full details about White House events "is different from trying to hide anything," says Press Secretary Jay Carney...
The White House on Monday had Press Secretary Jay Carney and communications assistant Eric Schultz as the knights on patrol to refute details in Jodi Kantor's forthcoming book "The Obamas." Both asserted that the White House did not keep secret the Alice in Wonderland "Mad Hatter Tea Party" hosted by President Obama and First Lady Obama for Halloween 2009, which featured the State Dining Room decorated by film director Tim Burton, and film star Johnny Depp on hand as the Mad Hatter. Carney and Schultz both said the event was well covered by media, and thus the White House was not trying to cover it up. It was well covered, but the fact is that no White House aides told reporters on the record that Burton and Depp were partying on October 31, 2009, with the First Family. Nor did they mention that so, too, were the rest of Burton's entourage, including "Alice" herself, actress Mia Wasikowska. (Above: The First Family with Depp, Burton and Wasikowska)

"There are outlets that have reported this as a “secret” party, which is just silly," Carney said during the daily press briefing, and called this "irresponsible" journalism. He even claimed that "it was contemporaneously known" that Depp and Burton attended the party.

Then how to explain that their presence at the White House has been headline news across the mediasphere since the excerpt from Kantor's book was first posted? Even Depp and Burton's "hometown newspaper"--The Hollywood Reporter--reported the story as fresh news on Monday. Schultz did his pushback on the White House blog, in a post titled "Gossip in Wonderland."

In 2009, there were also no details from White House aides about Deep Roy--the famous Oompa Loompa from Burton/Depp's Willy Wonka film--being at the White House. No one from the White House mentioned that Depp was standing on a table in the State Dining Room entertaining the children of military families and White House staff, as well as First Daughters Malia and Sasha and their pals. (Above: Depp, Burton, and the "Alice" gang with First Dog Bo in one of the White House reception rooms; Deep Roy is hugging Bo)

No one at the White House went on the record about bone-shaped meringue cookies and fruit juice masquerading as "vials of blood" for ghoulish treats, which Kantor reported.

Power struggles...
Kantor, who interviewed 33 current and former aides for her book, didn't report that the Halloween event was totally secret--just the Mad Hatter part, concealed, she wrote, due to fear of backlash during tough economic times.

“White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly," Kantor wrote. "And Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged."

In her book--which I have read--Kantor details a power struggle between the East and West Wings, with Mrs. Obama clashing with the President's Senior Advisors, in particular former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Kantor writes that the West Wing was in a constant state of anxiety over the kind of elegant, lavish entertaining the East Wing was doing, and thus former Social Secretary Desiree Rogers' hard work to create the Halloween event--including inviting Burton and Depp--had to be kept off the record.

"This time, the in-house debate about entertaining had resulted in an awkward stalemate," Kantor wrote. "Rogers and the East Wing had put a great deal of effort into the party, but the more they did, the more internal anxiety they caused."

Through the looking glass...
Carney and Schultz's efforts to debunk the idea that the party was secret were disingenuous. They both pointed to the fact that there was a pool report about the event, and a briefing by Gibbs previewing the event, as well as photos posted to the official White House Flickr and a White House video of the Halloween party (these are here). But NONE of these mention or contain images of Burton, Depp, or the Tea Party. Schultz praised the pool report as "extremely detailed and colorful." It was indeed, yet it lacked the crucial information that is now making headline news.

After being quizzed by reporters about why no Mad Hatter details were revealed, Carney at last came up with a reason.

"We do a lot of these things--July 4th, other events here--events that are geared towards military families and their kids, where the purpose isn’t to publicize them externally for you guys, but to have a nice event for them here, which is different from trying to hide anything," Carney said.

The Obama Administration bills itself as "the most transparent Administration in history," and has spent plenty of time praising itself for the fact that the names of visitors are publicly posted on logs that are available at WhiteHouse.gov. But neither Burton nor Depp's names show up in the official White House visitor log for October 31, 2009. A White House aide on Monday told Buzzfeed.com "that's because performers don't always go through the formal White House entrance procedure."

It should also be noted that none of the reporters in the briefing room were aware that, as Carney asserted, there were photos of Depp and Burton at the White House that were "instantly available."

"To who?" and "where?" reporters called out when Carney said this. Obama Foodorama was sent the photos appearing here early on Monday, and no one working here had ever seen them before.

In the rear-view mirror...
The White House is now mopping up an info situation left over by staff who are long gone. Not only are Gibbs, Emanuel, and Rogers in the Obamas' rear-view mirror, but so are the First Lady's own former Chief of Staff, Communications Director, and Press Secretary from 2009, as well as other aides. There were other instances during 2009 when White House reporters later discovered they had not been given the full information about an event. It was Year One for the Administration, and staff was "still figuring out where the light switches are," as Mrs. Obama herself said last year.

The Mad Hatter Tea Party is just one of hundreds of social events the President and First Lady have hosted. As such, it is minor in the grand scheme of things. Still, selectively doling out information to reporters speaks to an overall approach to "transparency" that's sometimes as filled with cobwebs as the North Portico was in 2009.

Schultz's White House post on the topic, "Gossip in Wonderland," is here. He does not mention Depp, Burton, or anyone in Burton's entourage by name. He does mention rabbit holes. Perhaps that is where the information reporters aren't told is stored. (Above: Another group shot of Depp, Burton, and their entourage at the White House)

The White House video from Halloween 2009:



*The photographer for these photos is unidentified

Burton, Depp Help The Obamas Host Secret "Alice in Wonderland" Mad Hatter Tea Party

Director Tim Burton does decorating duty; actor Johnny Depp emcees as Mad Hatter; George Lucas sends Chewbacca; vials of blood and bone-shaped meringues served as treats, according to Jodi Kantor's "The Obamas"...
UPDATE, Jan. 9: Party wasn't a secret, says White House
The White House was quick to dismiss Jodi Kantor's forthcoming "The Obamas" as an "overdramatization of old news," but there's plenty of new tidbits in the book, which hits stores on Jan. 10th. The New York Post is the latest to publish details from an advance copy, and re-tells Kantor's story about a lavish private costume ball that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama hosted for Halloween 2009, kept top secret for fear of backlash since the rest of America was struggling with recession. The “Alice in Wonderland” themed party was put on by filmmaker Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp, who served as emcee, clad as the Mad Hatter. At the behest of the Obamas, director George Lucas even sent the original “Star Wars” character Chewbacca to mingle with invited guests, according to Kantor. The White House released an official photo of Chewbacca with Mr. and Mrs. Obama on the North Portico, as they handed out treat bags to local school kids before the party. A White House video about the Halloween fest was also released, but contained nothing about the Mad Hatter Tea Party. (Above, the Obamas with First Grandmother Marian Robinson and Chewbacca)

“White House officials were so nervous about how a splashy, Hollywood-esque party would look to jobless Americans — or their representatives in Congress, who would soon vote on health care — that the event was not discussed publicly," Kantor wrote. "And Burton’s and Depp’s contributions went unacknowledged."

The unemployment rate was about 10% at the time of the party, which was for children of military personnel and White House staffers, and came after the trick-or-treating. The White House allowed the media to observe the Presidential treat fest under the North Portico, and then the President's press pool was briefly allowed in to the East Room for the beginning of the party, but rushed out after just a few minutes. Unbeknownst to the press, Burton had transformed the State Dining Room, located on the other side of the historic building, into a Mad Hatter's Tea Party, according to Kantor. Burton's film version of Alice in Wonderland, starring Depp, was about to hit theaters. (Above: A publicity photo of Depp as the Mad Hatter)

Burton decorated the East Room "in his signature creepy-comic style...with a long table set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies,” Kantor writes. “Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar."

"Burton’s own Mad Hatter, the actor Johnny Depp, presided over the scene in full costume, standing up on a table to welcome everyone in character.”

Obama daughters Malia and Sasha, then 11 and 8 respectively, “sat at the table, surrounded by a gaggle of their friends, and then proceeded to the next delight, a magic show in the East Room,” Kantor writes.

Former Social Secretary Desiree Rogers was in charge of events when the Mad Hatter Tea Party took place. The President and Mrs. Obama, like other Presidential couples before them, have hosted other social events that are closed to the press, including two similar Halloween parties for children of military families, in 2010 and 2011.

Kantor, a New York Times correspondent, interviewed 33 current and former White House aides for the book, though she did not interview the President and Mrs. Obama. Her story focuses on contentious relationships between Mrs. Obama and some of the President's Senior Advisors, including former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. In the acknowledgments, Kantor writes that Gibbs, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, the President's former top strategist David Axelrod, and Mrs. Obama's former chief of staff Susan Sher, as well as Obama Chicago friends Eric Whitaker and Marty Nesbitt "gave me many hours of interview time each." Click here for an excerpt of the book in The New York Times. (Above: Another official White House photo from Halloween 2009, with Mrs. Obama handing out treats in the East Room, across the building from where the Tea Party was held)

"The book, an overdramatization of old news, is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement on Friday.

"The author last interviewed the Obamas in 2009 for a magazine piece, and did not interview them for this book. The emotions, thoughts and private moments described in the book, though often seemingly ascribed to the president and first lady, reflect little more than the author's own thoughts. These secondhand accounts are staples of every administration in modern political history and often exaggerated."

This White House video from Halloween 2009 shows President and Mrs. Obama speaking in the East Room rather than in the Mad Hatter'd State Dining Room:



*Photos by Pete Souza/White House; Depp photo by Disney Enterprises, INC. S/LMK

White House Calls Baloney On "The Obamas"

The White House has already pushed back against "The Obamas," a new book by journalist Jodi Kantor that hits stores on Jan. 10. Kantor last interviewed the Obamas for a magazine article in 2009, but says she spoke with more than 30 current and former aides for the book, which details contentious relationships between First Lady Obama and President Obama's Senior Advisors, as well as Mrs. Obama's influence over her husband's presidency. The book is an "overdramatization of old news," according to the White House.

Kantor frames the book as an analysis of Mrs. Obama's "transformation" from Campaign Trail Wife to First Lady, and suggests she used her influence to protect what she regarded as her husband's vision, which led to clashes with staff, and what sounds like a war between the East and West Wings. According to Kantor's book excerpt in The New York Times, Mrs. Obama had especially uncomfortable relationships with the President's first Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and with first Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, both now out of the White House.

The First Lady believed that "Mr. Obama’s advisers were too insular and not strategic enough," writes Kantor, and continues:

The first lady never confronted the advisers directly — that was not her way — but they found out about her displeasure from the president. “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides.

Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff, repeated the first lady’s criticisms to colleagues with indignation, according to three of them.

As tensions rose early in the Administration, Kantor reports that the First Lady's office became cut off from the rest of the White House, and aides began "referring to the East Wing as 'Guam' -- pleasant but powerless."

“The book, an overdramatization of old news, is about a relationship between two people whom the author has not spoken to in years," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement on Friday.

"This is the author’s take, reflecting her own opinions...The emotions, thoughts and private moments described in the book, though often seemingly ascribed to the President and First Lady, reflect little more than the author’s own thoughts," said Schultz.

"These second-hand accounts are staples of every Administration in modern political history and often exaggerated.”

Emanuel is now Mayor of Chicago, and Mrs. Obama joined him last October for the first-ever Let's Move! Food Desert Summit.

The closing paragraphs of the Times excerpt describe Mrs. Obama's toast at the President's 50th birthday party at the White House in August of 2011. Kantor describes the toast as "a stemwinder:"

As the sun faded, the 150 guests — friends, celebrities, officials — sat on the South Lawn, listening to the first lady describe her version of Barack Obama: a tireless, upright leader who rose above Washington games, killed the world’s most wanted terrorist and still managed to coach his daughter Sasha’s basketball team. The president, looking embarrassed, tried to cut her off, several guests said, but she told him he had to sit and listen.

She also thanked him for putting up with how hard she had been on him. At that line, a few of the advisers glanced at each other in recognition.

Obama Foodorama's Marian Burros has more on "The Obamas," here next week...