With just over twelve months remaining for the Obama administration, the public’s attention has been focused on the president’s legacy. This summer, Obama was hailed as the anti-lame duck; he garnered congressional support in passing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the controversial Iran nuclear deal, and judicial success with the Supreme Court ruling in favor of nationwide same-sex marriage, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
These recent additions to the president’s scorecard have overshadowed the contributions First Lady Michelle Obama has made to the collective Obama legacy over the past seven years. With her health-focused programs, Mrs. Obama is one of many first ladies over the past half-century who have linked their initiatives to broader White House policy goals, thereby setting a consistent White House message of reform or focus in a certain policy area.
Voters are unsettled by the concept of a bachelor occupying the White House residence. When South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham announced his presidential bid earlier this year, questions about his policies were often followed by queries into his lack of a spouse. In fact, the United States has only had one president remain unmarried his entire life: James Buchanan. Apart from the social norms that the American people desire of the first family — to embody a happy marriage and the ideal in family values — there is a political advantage to the image of a president who does not stand alone, not only in official portraits, but also in policy initiatives.
Abigail Adams is famous for asking her husband, second president John Adams, to “remember the ladies” when he served as a representative at the 1776 Constitutional Convention. Yet most early first ladies followed the precedent of Dolley Madison, and took up the more domestic role of America’s hostess. However, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt broke the mold by undertaking policy initiatives as well as traditional duties; her partnership with the Peace Corps and her post-presidency work with the United Nations garnered her the title of “First Lady of the World.” Apart from her later international focus, Mrs. Roosevelt’s legacy was also closely tied to her husband’s in that both utilized new forms of communication, such as the White House press corps and radio broadcasts, to make the presidency more publicly accessible. Franklin Roosevelt’s weekly fireside chats and Eleanor’s daily newspaper column, “My Day,” made the first family part of every family. In a time of Great Depression recovery and World War II uncertainty, the two Roosevelts were united in striving to reach and reassure the American people.
More recent first ladies have followed Eleanor Roosevelt’s lead in crafting their own legacies while often thematically tying them to those of their husbands. Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign fell under the umbrella of President Ronald Reagan’s “War on Drugs,” which he posed as a national security threat. By telling schoolchildren to “just say no” to those who offered them drugs and implementing zero-tolerance policies for illicit substances in schools and mandatory minimum sentencing for drug-related crimes, the Reagans were also united in their absolutist view of how to remedy the country’s drug problem. Yet this cohesive front resonated with the public and the courts; by 1989, 64 percent of Americans viewed drug abuse as the nation’s number one problem, and by 1997, 400,000 were imprisoned for drug-related offenses.
First Lady Laura Bush also coupled her cause with that of her husband. Mrs. Bush was a “champion of President Bush’s ambitious agenda” of educational reform through No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This 2001 public education policy stressed the importance of students making adequate yearly progress to meeting state standards in math and reading. Laura Bush’s program, Ready to Read, Ready to Learn, served as foundational support not just for early childhood literacy, but also for the implementation of NCLB. The First Lady’s focus on familiarizing the youngest children with reading before they “enter their first classroom” prepared them to meet the NCLB standards once they entered the K-12 public education system.
The Obamas echoed this domestic policy cohesion with a focus on improving America’s health. Like Nancy Reagan, Michelle Obama’s legacy is a narrow, youth-focused program: her Let’s Move campaign to fight childhood obesity. On the other hand, President Obama, like Ronald Reagan, took a wider approach; the pinnacle of his legacy has been the development and implementation of comprehensive health care reform through the ACA. Although Let’s Move is not directly tied to the ACA — as Laura Bush’s literacy initiative was to NCLB — these two legacies have allowed the Obamas to present a comprehensive stance on the importance of American health and wellbeing.
As of October, Americans viewed health care as the fifth most important concern facing the country. Within the health care field, a 2014 Gallup poll ranked obesity as the fourth most urgent health issue in the country. The issue has polled consistently higher since the launch of Let’s Move in 2010, ranging from ten to 16 percent of Americans citing it as most important within health care. During the prior eight years of the Bush presidency, importance rarely rose out of the single digits. The increasing concern may be due to the mounting cases of obesity over the past thirty years, but it is also because of Mrs. Obama’s push for its increased public awareness. Both Obamas have utilized social media to advance their health care initiatives, especially with younger voters. In a Buzzfeed video, the president took up a selfie stick and asked viewers to sign up for health coverage; Mrs. Obama partnered with Beyoncé to popularize the Let’s Move launch through a music workout video called “Move Your Body,” which has received over 32 million views since its release in 2011. The president and First Lady employ the Internet to appeal to the public in a way no administration has done before. In this way, they have furthered their image as an attractive, youthful couple while also pushing their agendas.
But the Obamas’ time in the White House is coming to a close. At the inauguration ceremony in January 2017, the president-elect will raise his (or her) right hand and deliver the oath of office, a promise to the American people to protect the Constitution. The president has made a similar vow before, to his spouse. The spouse holding the sworn-upon text (most likely the Bible) is also brought into the union between the new president and the nation. Therefore, when electing a president, especially in light of the recent trend of unified policy legacies, the American people will receive what Bill Clinton called, “Two for the price of one.” Before they cast their ballot, voters must be certain that this is a deal they truly want.