For anti-obesity push, Michelle Obama woos business, puts her popularity to work

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The First Lady demurred on whether she would eventually lend her popularity and brand to more controversial, potentially polarizing issues, like gun control. She attended the funeral of Hadiya Pendleton, the 15-year-old girl who was killed soon after attending the president’s second inaugural with her marching band, and hosted Hadiya’s parents in her box during the State of the Union address. And Jarrett said that before the funeral, Mrs. Obama met with around 30 of Hadiya’s classmates, telling them about her own challenges growing up, and asking them to “honor Hadiya by trying to live out the life that she didn’t get to live.”

But there are no immediate plans, it seems, for a Michelle Obama barnstorming tour or media blitz pushing for an assault weapons ban.

“That’s a part of the strategic planning process, right?” Mrs. Obama said. “Once we pick the set of issues, then we drill down [and ask]: what’s going to be helpful.  And I say, am I going to do an op-ed piece?  It is going to be helpful?  Can it move something?  Will it advance something?  So I can’t say yes, I can’t say no.  We’re going to be looking to see — what I don’t do is just to do things to satisfy someone else’s definition of what’s controversial.  So write an op-ed piece, go on the Hill.  It’s like, well, let’s figure out whether that’s going to work.  Is that going to add value?  Is that going to take away value?  It’s not really about me wanting to do a set of certain things.  It’s really about what’s going to work.”

For now, Mrs. Obama has embraced an issue that unites blue and red states — not to mention the White House and corporate America.

“With childhood obesity, we really believe that creating partnerships with carrots rather than sticks in my position as First Lady is a better way to get results,” she said.

And the first lady said she hopes her initiative will also empower parents.

“As we’re seeing with companies, they’re going to look for what model are they going to make money on. And if they make money off of selling our kids chips and sodas, that’s what they’re going to do,” she said. “But if we demand convenient containers of healthy drinks that don’t have added sugars — that our kids enjoy but aren’t adding unnecessary calories or hidden calories — and if they make those products, then we have to buy them. And the more we buy them, the more we’ll generate demand, the more that will change the market. So I want to remind parents that we still have power in an open marketplace to set the agenda. We’re not powerless in this, but we have to lead with our pocketbooks and we have to show businesses that the healthier choice can be good business as well.”

But the most important element of any deal pursued by the East Wing is that it be a priority of Michelle the mom.

“I can guarantee you that what I will do will always involve kids in some way, shape or form,” Mrs. Obama said. “That is my passion. I think that’s the investment where I can uniquely have an impact.”

It’s that affinity for children that seems to put the spring in Mrs. Obama’s step.

“I have a special affinity for kids,” she said. “Barack — we were talking about this the other day, I don’t know, maybe — we love our kids so much, and it is very hard not to see our kids in every child we meet.  So I am powerfully moved by children, and I need to have them in my life.  They keep me focused.  They keep me sort of directed so that any time anything else is going around if I’m in a room full of kids, they constantly bring you back to where you need to be.”

“She loves those daughters and she loves all of our daughters,” Jarrett said. “And I’ve watched her just touch so many hearts and when she’s around young people, particularly girls, she’ll just grab them and hug them, and I think that resonates deeply because they don’t see her up on a distant pedestal, they see her as someone within reach who could be their mom. And that makes her a terrific role model.”

Follow Joy Reid on Twitter at @TheReidReport.