Tom Baldwin in Washington
Perhaps the Queen could have tried harder to be more like a furry red monster, or Carla Bruni might have done more work on her impersonation of an eight-foot yellow bird but, for now, neither has apparently excited Michelle Obama so much as filming an appearance on Sesame Street.
“I think it's probably the best thing I've done so far in the White House,” the First Lady said. “I never thought I'd be on Sesame Street with Elmo and Big Bird and I was thrilled. I'm still thrilled - I'm on a high.”
Mrs Obama was probably not intending to belittle the assortment of heads of state, world leaders, celebrities and spouses she has met since her move to the White House - nor her husband's presidential inauguration, attended by two million people, nor his whirlwind first 100 days in power.
The remarks, made during a visit to the United Nations on Tuesday, were the latest illustration of how she has smoothed her harder edges as a Harvard-educated lawyer and - according to political opponents - an angry black woman into a self-effacing, beautifully dressed, “mom-in-chief”.
Mrs Obama moves effortlessly from posing for the cover of fashion magazines to the back garden at the White House where she has installed swings and planted a vegetable garden. The clothes she wears often sell out instantly online but Mrs Obama never misses an opportunity to present her family as the embodiment of an all-American middle-class dream akin to The Brady Bunch - which she loved to watch as a child.
“I feel like I've never left Chicago. Soccer on Saturday - yes, I'm on a soccer field all day, just like many of you. Slumber parties - we had about seven girls over, screaming and yelling, and we're shuttling kids back and forth, just like usual,” she told a lunch for congressional wives last week.
Did she mention that they had got a dog? You bet. “The newest addition to the Obama family - the most famous member of the family, Bo Obama - is also doing well,” she said. “I got up at 5.15 to walk my puppy. That's how my day starts. I love my Bo.”
It is easy to forget how Mrs Obama was seen as a liability during the election campaign, when aides fretted over her suggestion that she had never felt proud of America before her husband ran for president.
That was before a concerted effort to present her in unrelentingly soft focus, during which she has seen her approval ratings rise steadily from the low 40s to the mid-70s, surpassing even those of her husband. It says much that the biggest controversy of the past 100 days was touching the Queen during a visit to Buckingham Palace. Some saw that as a “breach of protocol” - but that is a phrase that leaves warm-blooded Americans cold.
The First Lady has deftly exploited the public's fascination with her family while refraining from direct involvement in policymaking that made much of America loathe Hillary Clinton during her husband's presidency. The few issues on which Mrs Obama has projected a message have been chosen well way from political minefields.
Her visit to the Sesame Street studios was to film an appearance with Elmo “on the importance of eating right”. As she did so Mr Obama and Joe Biden slipped out of the White House to visit a nearby burger joint. If anyone in her family strays offmessage these days it is her husband.
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