The Obamas, Living Out Loud

Is there anyone in America who doesn't know Michelle Obama planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn of the White House? A Google search for the words "Michelle Obama garden" yields nearly 1.2 million hits.

There have been White House gardens of one sort or another for years, including herb gardens on the East Lawn and container gardens of tomatoes and peppers on a rooftop promenade. But the first lady kicked the media into overdrive by grabbing a shovel and inviting a group of cute local schoolchildren to help her break ground. "We're looking to you guys to help educate the country" about healthy food, she told them.

Eleanor Roosevelt's World War II-era Victory Garden prompted 20 million Americans to start their own gardens. The Obamas are aiming for impact on the same scale and they're using every tool at their disposal – technology, celebrity, strategy and their own urban, minority backgrounds.

It's a safe bet there will be more Americans planting gardens this year and choosing new pets like Bo Obama, a Portuguese water dog. We've already seen what Michelle Obama can do for catalogue retailer J Crew – sellouts, waiting lists, stock jumps and web traffic jams every time she wears one of their items on TV or, say, while calling on Queen Elizabeth. Or what happens when the president tells The New York Times he's reading the novel Netherland by Joseph O'Neill (double-digit increase in sales).

Most first families at least start off with high levels of visibility and public interest. Bill Clinton jogged, Hillary Clinton showcased American foods and chefs, they went out to eat, and joined a church. George W. Bush didn't go out much, but Laura Bush often visited Washington museums and restaurants with friends, dignitaries and her aides. A former librarian and teacher, she welcomed authors and students to the White House and highlighted the successes of disadvantaged youth, including Washington's Ballou High School marching band and a film about its preparations for a national competition.

Anita McBride, Laura Bush's former chief of staff, says Michelle Obama has some fresh and creative ideas. But the real difference, she says, is in the coverage. "Either there's more interest or it is very new, and they are doing a lot of interesting and fun things early on," she says.

Gary Walters, who retired in 2007 after 20 years as chief usher at the White House, chalks it up to the former. "There's a tremendous fascination," he says, because the Obamas are younger than most recent presidential couples, they have young children and they are the first black family in the White House.

The Obamas came into office promising a commitment to their new city. The president has shown up at a Wizards game, played basketball at a community center and eaten at restaurants from downscale (a hamburger joint with Joe Biden) to upscale (Citronelle on a date night with his wife).

But it's Michelle Obama who is becoming a familiar figure all over town. She's been to 10 agencies so far to promote her husband's agenda and thank federal employees for their service. She's been to the Kennedy Center, the Capitol and the National Mall. She's visited a community health center, a homeless aid center, a food bank and four schools.

On Wednesday she read Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst to third-graders at Ferebee-Hope Elementary School, which has a weekly afterschool tutoring program run by Community in Schools, the nation's largest dropout prevention program. "When something gets hard ... will you promise me that you will not quit?" Mrs. Obama asked the children after discussing the book with them. "Because if you do that, you will help the president so much."

Like the new kitchen garden, it was a teachable moment brought to you by the first family. So was a visit by six culinary students to the White House kitchen. Usually reporters preview preparations for official dinners, but in what White House veterans say was a first, Mrs. Obama invited students from L'Academie de Cuisine in suburban Maryland. She also took the opportunity – once again -- to pitch healthy eating.

The Obamas mean to stretch us, and not simply in how we think about food. Take for instance this week's "Evening of Music, Poetry and the Spoken Word." The performance, in an East Room lit to resemble a cabaret, showcased young, edgy, minority poets and jazz musicians. Guests included students from several local universities.

Mrs. Obama, in large hanging earrings and an off-the-shoulder print blouse, called the evening a chance "for all of us to learn about different forms of communication and to be open to hearing other people's voices." She added that "democracy is really, really big. It has room for lots of voices, which sometimes take us out of our comfort zones, but that's what makes it so meaningful."

I watched the 45-minute performance online in a livestream from the White House. On Wednesday, if I wanted to, I could have watched a food safety meeting, a briefing by press secretary Robert Gibbs and a presidential statement on Sri Lanka, and listened to live audio of Obama's commencement address at Arizona State University.

It's easy to make the mistake of believing that the Internet age at the White House started with the Obamas. In fact, the administration itself made that mistake last month in a press release announcing the first webcast of the White House Easter Egg Roll. Turns out the Bush administration had been livestreaming the event since 2002, leading to this headline at famousdc.com: "The Easter Bunny and the Internet Did Not Exist Before Obama."

David Almacy, who was Internet director during Bush's second term, says the administration livestreamed every event Bush did anywhere on the 18-acre grounds of the White House, using older technology that allowed even dial-up users to tune in.

He says Clinton, who put up a White House website, was the first true Internet president; Bush was the first digital president, and Obama is the first social media president. "They've evolved with the web just like we did," he says.

Lorraine Voles, a White House aide during the Clinton administration, says the impact of the Obamas is magnified by the rise of new media delivery systems. Michelle Obama "goes out and gardens, and people blog and Twitter about it," she says. "The way to spread the information is so much more vast."

By who they are, what they do and the many ways they communicate, the Obamas are in effect living out loud at the White House. We may get tired of the preaching and teaching and ubiquitous media presence, but it will be interesting to see what kind of country we are in four years.