First Family: Life in the White House

The first family this week: 15 headlines you may have missed

They're role models

• The first post-modern first couple? (New American Media)
• The Obamas are "black swans" (Huffington Post)
• "The first lady of the United States is brown like me" (Austin American-Statesman)
• The price of "faux-familiarity" (The New York Times)
• Ebony editor: "They are the president and first lady of the people" (NewsBusters/NBC)

They're cool

• Sasha, Malia may increase attention paid to tween set (USA Today)

They're fashionable

• First family wears wool (Weekly Times)
• Sasha's inaugural ball dress helps raise money for children (MyCentralJersey.com)
• The importance of letting their hair down (KNX)
• Book to chronicle Michelle Obama's style (Washington Times)
  

They eat well

• Eating locally stimulates the economy (Marie Claire)
• What may be on the first family's menu (Caymanmama.com)

They're entertaining

• Jonas brothers want to fly on Air Force One (OK!)
• First family could bring diversity to TV shows (Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier)

And they're friendly to animals

• National Park Service removing raccoons from West Wing (The Herald)

Video from 2004: Meet the Obama family

"Entertainment Tonight" has published a video flashback to 2004 that shows Barack and Michelle Obama explaining television cameras and boom microphones to a much younger Sasha and Malia. At the time, Obama was a newly elected senator and the family was excited about having a post-campaign weekend together. These days, they're excited to all be living in the same house again.

Sasha, Malia could make 'age appropriate' clothes fashionable

Some parents and store owners are grateful the first daughters have adopted a style that is more classic than the "the 7-going-on-17 look so popular of late," the Palm Beach Post says.

The boutique owners agree that a tastefully dressed young lady wears tailored clothing -- in either traditional or contemporary styling -- and is dressed with consideration given to her age, the degree of formality of the event and the season.

That is not the most popular approach to dressing little girls, says (Diane) Inderlin, of Sweet Pea & Me. "We see some funky stuff out there right now. A lot of girls are looking up to the Hannah Montana image, and I think that's where everything is going wrong. Girls have the rest of their life to be funky." ...

"It would be great," she says, "if girls begin to look to the Obamas."

Related:

• NJ designer's "Peacock" dress in high demand since Sasha wore it (MyCentralJersey.com)
• Mother of young model who looks like Sasha says she hopes daughter will get more work (CNN)
• How the girls stayed warm during the inauguration (Newsday)
• J.Crew to sell Obama inauguration outfits (Chicago Tribune)
• Obama's favorite suit company files for bankruptcy (Philly.com)

Miley Cyrus says Sasha, Malia 'like every other fan'

Teen magazine J-14 spoke with Miley Cyrus about performing for the girls:

Miley ... said the girls were so into the show. "They were taking pictures like every other fan -- they were really cool and appreciative of me being there. I really liked that."

Matt Lauer wants to watch the Super Bowl with the first family

Entertainment Tonight recaps the "Today" show host's appearance on Conan O'Brien, and describes how Matt Lauer hopes to turn his Sunday morning pre-Super Bowl interview with the president into an invitation to watch the game together:

"I was thinking of going to Sasha and Malia and saying I really have nowhere else to go, and I don't want to be on the plane again as the kickoff airs," Lauer jokes to Conan, and goes on to explain how he would bring the first family refreshments as a housewarming gift; "I've got pigs in a blanket. I can stay!"

Lauer will sit down with President Obama an hour before kick-off during NBC's Super Bowl pre-game show, the rest of the interview will air on the "Today" show Monday morning on NBC

Michelle Obama's portfolio as first lady to include work-family balance

Washington Bureau Chief for the Chicago Sun-Times, Lynn Sweet writes that the Obamas do not have a nanny (grandmother Marian Robinson is staying in the White House to help them get settled) and Michelle Obama is not planning many public appearances until her daughters are settled into their new life. But when she does begin building her profile as first lady, her focus will remain, at least partially, on family. Sweet reports:

During the campaign, Obama said as first lady she would focus on helping military families and taking on women's issues. As it evolves, her agenda is getting additions. Preliminary plans have Obama also bringing to a "national stage" work and family balance "conversations" and a community service piece, with her interest stemming from her tenure as executive director of Public Allies Chicago from spring 1993 to fall 1996.

A November New York Times story offered an early glimpse into her plans:

As first lady, Mrs. Obama has said, she plans to make herself an advocate for working parents, particularly military families, urging better access to child care for all. Trying to juggle public duties with two young children, she will be a living illustration of the very issue she describes.

"She's going to be engaging in the balancing act herself," said Doris Kearns Goodwin, the presidential historian.

Expect strict, hands-on parenting to continue.

... As for keeping the Obama girls grounded, the Jonas Brothers' surprise White House visit last week -- band members were at the end of a scavenger hunt -- was the exception for the sisters and will not be the rule. One time, unique, not going to be a habit, I'm told.

Has word reaching the White House yet that Harry Potter lead Daniel Radcliffe has invited the girls to the film set? The Daily Mail reminds us that the Obamas are longtime Harry Potter fans.

A Wii in the White House

The Toronto Star reports:

A Nintendo Wii game console was one of the items moved into the 216-year-old White House. Newly inaugurated President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle bought a Wii for their daughters, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, over the Christmas season.

According to Australia's Herald-Sun newspaper, the popular console will be connected to the television in the mansion's family room, occupied by children for the first time since 1993, when 12-year-old Chelsea Clinton spent time there.

LA Times columnist: Dream dad is "one job too many for Obama"

Meghan Daum wonders "why we're so punch-drunk in love with Obama's role as a father." She has her own theory:

...the romanticization of Obama's role as family man speaks to more than the country's usual infatuation with first-family details. Put simply: Watching him with his kids feels redemptive and vindicating. In many of the same ways "The Cosby Show" did, it does double duty as both an allayer of white guilt ("he's just like us") and an image makeover for black communities that resent their monolithic reputation for absentee fatherhood. Meanwhile, it sets an example for all fathers of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds, suggesting that just as there's seemingly no barrier to becoming president, there's no excuse for not being an involved parent.

That, of course, is the role of role models. Nothing wrong there. What's problematic is the way the president's parenting, in its public presentation, has devolved into a kind of kitsch, some of which looks pretty strategic. Obama is not just a dad, he's Cliff Huxtable writ large, a post-racial, post-feminist, fun-loving-yet-limits-setting pater familias who just happens to be president.

Never mind that, in all likelihood, he's like a lot of good fathers who have demanding careers: proud, loving and not around all that much. Never mind that the time he can spend with his daughters will be a fraction of what it was before he began pursuing the presidency. Never mind that his daughters have had to sacrifice that commodity so precious to children -- normalcy -- for the sake of their father and the people who elected him.

Obama is already burdened with a load of superhuman qualities we've imposed on him. Not least among these is the idea that he might be capable of signing executive orders with one hand and checking his kids' homework with the other. Worse, given our culture's persistent anxieties about race, that "world's greatest dad" figurine sitting metaphorically on his desk is perhaps more about quelling a nation's fears about black masculinity than it is about a family ideal.

That's not only a pity, it's beneath us. This president has enough of a job keeping us safe from outside threats. Let's let the man stop wasting his time trying to make us feel safe from him.

Grandmother in chief moves into White House temporarily

As part of its preview of "the secrets of White House life," People magazine has published "5 Things to Know About Marian Robinson," Michelle Obama's mother. They include:

• Her move to the White House is temporary, to help Malia and Sasha adjust. She tells the magazine, "I love those people, but I love my own house. The White House reminds me of a museum and it's like, how do you sleep in a museum?"
• She follows her own house rules. She says, "I follow the rules at Michelle's house. At my house, they're my rules. (Laughs.) I know Michelle is strict ... When I'm at their house, the girls are doing all the stuff their mother has told them to do, there's not much left for me to do! But when they're at my house, they don't have to scrape the dishes -- and they get to watch TV."

Obamas model diversity within families

The New York Times and CNN published interesting pieces this week about how black families and American culture may be changed by the Obamas.

CNN points out:

A global audience will now be fed images of a highly educated, loving and photogenic black family living in the White House for the next four years -- and it can't go off the air like "The Cosby Show."