First Lady Michelle Obama appeared on The Daily Show yesterday to promote her new book, American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America. It's about getting Americans—especially children—to eat healthy. Host Jon Stewart told her she would have been better off choosing an easier project than getting kids to eat vegetables, like, say, colonizing Mars. The First Lady was a gracious yet circumspect guest, even when Stewart hit her with questions about Obama's past drug use.
Excerpts from a forthcoming biography about the president were leaked last week, many of them detailing Obama's fondness for marijuana as a teenager and young adult. (Buzzfeed compiled them in a very funny photo feature.) Obama asked the First Lady about these stories, saying, "What is this, the script of a Cheech and Chong movie?"
Obama told Stewart, "By the time he was in college, like so many young people, he realized that he could do more with his life... He had a mother that was always saying you're so gifted, you're so talented, slap him on the head, 'get yourself together.' When he lost his father, that was one of those click-in moments. And he really buckled down, he transferred schools, went to Columbia, and thought about how to use his life to the fullest."
Stewart also asked the First Lady about Joe Biden, who was recently in the "news" for his plan to jump a motorcycle over the Vietnam Memorial. "Is it hard to raise a kid around Biden?" Stewart asked. "Because I would assume there's a lot of 'Joe—langauge!' Or is he like the uncle that comes over and you're like, 'Oh, you brought them guns?!'
"I love Joe," Obama said. "He's a great vice president and he's a great friend. My kids hang around him and I'm good with it." And then she wrapped up the interview with, "I'm not taking any bait." "It's organic," Stewart assured her.
