Michelle Obama Watch

Our First Lady is a hugger Tonight the world saw First Lady Michelle Obama hug a young lady in the First Lady’s mezzanine box in the House of Representatives during the president’s first address to Congress. Her name is Ty’Sheoma Bethea How cool is that?

No, don’t all of y’all start writing letters to the President trying to be BFFs with the First Lady. I know the way y’all think.

This would also be a good time to tell our international readers that First Lady Michelle Obama does not run this blog and while I appreciate your lengthy letters in the email inbox, you might want to direct those to the White House. I love reading them. Its like being Santa’s Elf Here is some background from Howard Witt of the Chicago Tribune:

I met Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the teenage girl invited by President Barack Obama to sit beside the First Lady during his speech to Congress on Tuesday night, quite by accident a couple of weeks ago.

I was visiting the J.V. Martin Junior High School in Dillon, S.C., a decrepit facility where the roof leaks and winter classroom temperatures hover in the 50s, to learn about how one impoverished school district was hoping for some financial help from the stimulus bill then being debated in Congress….Later that evening, after our exchange in her classroom, Ty’Sheoma decided to walk to the town library. She sat down in front of a computer and typed out a single-spaced letter which began, “Dear Congress of the United States.”

In rough but passionate prose, the teenager beseeched the faceless representatives to help.Ty’Sheoma’s letter made its way to the president’s desk, and last week, he invited the teenager and her mother to sit in First Lady Michelle Obama’s mezzanine box in the House of Representatives to watch the president’s first address to Congress.

Ty’sheoma smiled as the president read out some of her words from her letter. Chicago Tribune

I was on the treadmill (The First Lady would be proud) so I couldn’t hear what the President was saying about her, but I could see our First Lady repeatedly hugging her. Some other folks were also in the box. Again, I only saw them waving I was working out and couldn’t read the closed captioning:

Leonard Abess Jr., a banker in Miami who shared $60 million in profits with his employees, will also attend, along with Geneva Lawson — one of the recipients of Abess’s generosity. White House

MOW reader Sandy from Obama Mamas provided the photo.