Presidential firsts: Mentioning child obesity in a State of the Union address, using the word "honey"...President Obama took a moment to add a bit of unscripted sweetness to his State of the Union address on Wednesday evening, when he thanked First Lady Michelle Obama for becoming the administration's lead on combating child obesity.
First, President Obama said exactly what was written in the official transcript of his prepared speech:
"And by the way, I want to acknowledge our First Lady, Michelle Obama, who this year is creating a national movement to tackle the epidemic of childhood obesity and make our kids healthier."
After much of the audience in the House chamber rose to their feet to applaud Mrs. Obama, the President looked up at Mrs. Obama in her box seat, and added "Thank you, honey." Mrs. Obama waved, but then as the applause continued, she motioned for everyone to sit down, and mouthed "Sit down." The audience finally did sit.The President then said--again unscripted--"She gets embarrassed." In the transcript of the President's remarks that the White House sent out after his speech, there's no "honey" officially recorded. But yes, the President said it (it's at 39:20 in the C-SPAN video of the speech).
Thus, President Obama is the first Chief Executive to ever mention child obesity in a State of the Union address, as well as the first president to say "Thank you, honey" during a speech in the House. It's not only a charming foodie referent, but also heady stuff for those concerned about child obesity, to have President Obama call the nation's attention to Mrs. Obama's campaign. (Above: Mrs. Obama, encouraging the audience to sit)
Mick Cornett, the mayor of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, was one of the citizen guests seated with Mrs. Obama, but there was no mention of the work he's done to fight obesity in his city, nor was there mention of food access and the work done by another of Mrs. Obama's guests, grocer Jeffrey Brown, to combat urban food deserts. The President was ostensibly going to include a mention of one or both of these issues in his remarks, but his speech was changed multiple times in the last day.
The National Export Initiative and Farmers
American farmers and small businesses got good news in the President's address, when he announced his intent to double American exports over the next five years, an increase he believes will support two million new jobs. This was the only mention of agriculture in the seventy minutes of sound bytes:
We're launching a National Export Initiative that will help farmers and small businesses increase their exports and expand their markets. Details will be announced in the coming weeks, but the NEI includes the creation of the President’s Export Promotion Cabinet and an enhancement of funding for key export promotion programs. We will work to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens markets...
The White House advises that "The president and members of his Administration will announce additional details in the coming week," but Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack already announced a piece of this particular pie on Tuesday. USDA has allocated $234.5 million dollars to seventy US trade organizations to help promote American food and agriculture products overseas. The funding is falls under the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Cooperator Program, both administered by USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). Click the link to see a chart of which US organizations are getting how much funding....
President Obama also took a moment in his remarks to mention the work Mrs. Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are doing to support military families, and this, too, received a standing ovation. On Tuesday, at a luncheon for military spouses, Mrs. Obama announced an increase of more than 3% --$8.8 billion --in the President's 2011 budget, for programs to support military families. She and Dr. Biden have made supporting military families an important joint mission in the last year.
*The guest list of those seated with Mrs. Obama during the President's address is at the bottom of this post.
Related: The day after the President's address, Mrs. Obama held a mini summit on child obesity with Surgeon General Regina Benjamin and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; a post about the event is here. A video of the event is here. The full transcript of the First Lady's remarks from the event is here. A post about Mrs. Obama's address to the US Conference of Mayors, when she asked them to join her campaign, is here. A post about the Healthy Kids Fair at the White House is here. The Surgeon General's website is here. The HHS website is here.
Photo at top of post: The President during his remarks, with Vice President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the background; photos by Getty.
