Or so it would seem. Remember the video of Barack Obama giving a eulogy in which he was more concerned with talking about himself than with talking about the deceased?

Well, Michelle seems to have a similar idea regarding her own appearances.

From Political Outcast…

Lisa Putnam is a fifth grade teacher in the Chicago Public School system. She and her students were very excited about participating in the Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move kickoff even in the Windy City. The event was being held at the McCormick Place, billed as the largest convention center in all of North America.
Their day of fun and excitement turned out to be anything but fun and exciting. The students spent over 7-8 hours without food for what turned out to be nothing more than a commercial for Michelle Obama who literally ignored the 6,000 kids brought in for the event. When Obama took the podium, she never faced the kids. Instead, she faced the cameras and media covering the event.

Putnam, a supporter of the First Lady was so appalled by what happened that she felt compelled to write about what happened. This is what she wrote:

“If you are a parent, imagine that you take your child on a trip and they are very excited. Now imagine they have to wait on a bus and stand in straight lines for three hours straight. Then imagine after one hour of “fun” that they have to sit around and wait for three more hours that bus to pick them up. Oh, did I mention that are not allowed to have a morsel of food the entire time? Now, multiply that by 25 to 35. Sounds fun right?! That’s a little bit what the day was like for CPS students, parents and teachers at the Let’s Move! Campaign.”

“When offered the chance to participate in the Let’s Move! campaign, I thought it would be a lot of fun and jumped at the chance. After all, my students have been working very hard to prepare for next week’s ISAT test and deserved a to let loose a little. Had I known what this event entailed, I would have definitely taken a pass.

“The day began with the buses picking us up from our school. As we arrived at McCormick Place, we passed bus after bus after bus, full of students. Our bus took its place at the end of that line, and we waited for over 45 minutes to reach our destination. I thought the 90 total minutes in a school bus full of children would be the extent of my stress, but I was a bit naive at this point.”

“As we entered McCormick place we were ushered immediately to metal detectors and our bags were searched. We didn’t bring food or drink as was requested, so the security check went by flawlessly. Then we waited in another line, this time for t-shirts. When my 10 year old students received their XL men’s t-shirts, I did my best to tell them with a straight face that the shirts would shrink and the girls could maybe wear them as a dress.”

“We were moved to a location in a large concrete room with thousands of children. We were told to keep our students in three straight quiet lines. The students stood there for almost an hour. Then, the students were ushered into a giant room with a stage and told they had to be very quiet, that there was a “surprise in there for them.” 6,000 kids quiet? Good luck guy. As the students went into the room, they were all assigned to stand in different areas. The students framed the stage on three sides and the media was seated on the four side of the rectangular square. As the commercial, I mean event, began each athlete was introduced.

They all had a 1-2 minute motivational speech that was so cheesy that none of the athletes really seemed to connect with the students and the messages did not resonate. It seemed like one giant Nike advertisement. Finally, the first lady came out. Although she was stunning and her message was powerful, her back was to the children. She was facing the media. I couldn’t help wondering, who is this event really for? Then I realized my students were just a backdrop to this campaign/commercial.”