I am actually experiencing a new emotion: empathy for Michelle Obama. It's bad enough when an ordinary husband makes his wife look like a fool in public, but when the husband is the most visible man in America, the sting is all the more intense.

Yesterday, Michelle released the news that she is making a cameo appearance in a video featuring  "a hip-hop song recorded to encourage kids from minority groups to take care of their bodies." AP via USA Today elaborates:

In the video, Mrs. O talks briefly about launching Let's Move! and people's doubts about whether it will make a difference. Recently released new research, showing a reduction in obesity rates in some states, suggests the first lady's exhortations on healthy eating might be having an effect. (snip)

It's a first-lady first to turn up in a hip-hop video, but it's not Mrs. Obama's first brush with musical celebrity. She partnered with Obama fan Beyoncé in 2011 for a collaboration on a Move Your Body workout song for the Let's Move! campaign.

Quite clearly, Mrs. Obama has invested a great deal of emotion in her campaign to address the  national obesity problem. The hip-hop video is particularly aimed at African-American children, a group which suffers even worse obesity rates than the rest of the American population. I have no doubt that this reality tears at the first lady's heart, and she really sees a mission for herself in saving children so dear to her from this fate.

I do admire Michelle Obama's considerable and successful effort to control her own weight through diet and exercise. It cannot be easy, and it is a burden that never ends for those cursed with a body type prone to add weight in visible places. Every day, you have to do the exercise regimen. And every meal, you have to decline those delicious fatty items that seem ubiquitous. It is a struggle, one I know first hand.

So what does her husband do, with the entire world watching? Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner:

It's only been three days, but President Obama has quickly settled into the vacation diet on Martha's Vineyard. But don't tell the first lady.

During a rainy day on Tuesday, he traveled to Nancy's in scenic Oak Bluffs for a fried lunch. According to the pool report: "POTUS's food order at Nancy's was fried shrimp, fried oysters, onion rings and french fries."

Obviously not on the lunch trip was first lady Michelle Obama, the first family's fitness buff.

Maybe the exciting Martha's Vineyard social whirl the Obamas experience left them too tired last night to talk over them humiliation inflicted on Michelle. But I doubt very much that she will remain silent very long. She doesn't seem like the sort of person who successfully bottles up emotions for extended periods.

I can tell you this: I would not want Michelle Obama mad at me. I hope the president doesn't make any important decisions today.