She has made the office of First Lady her own. A forceful advocate of school nutrition standards and military families’ affairs, she’s more involved in policy than Laura Bush was. But unlike Hillary Clinton, who championed a secretive (and ultimately unsuccessful) health care reform, Obama has stayed away from hard policy. A fashion icon and an athletic mother of two, she’s Jackie Kennedy with a law degree from Harvard and street sense from Chicago’s South Side. She’s also effective: In response to her Let’s Move! campaign against childhood obesity, companies like Coca-Cola, Kellogg and General Mills have pledged to reduce the calorie content of their foods by 2012. The first lady remains popular: 54% of Americans view her favorably.

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