White House Objects to Advocacy Group's Poster, Featuring Jasmine Messiah, That Invokes Obama Children

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine paid $20,000 to put up 14 posters in Union Station in Washington D.C. that features a picture of  Jasmine Messiah, an eight-year old girl saying:  "President Obama's daughters get healthy school lunches. Why don't I?" Within 24 hours of the signs' appearance, the White House reportedly asked the group to take the posters down and they refused. Aren't the children of our presidents' off limits? It is an unwritten rule that should be honored. Nobody bothered President George W. Bush's two kids, Jenna and Barbara Bush, nor did they pay much attention to Chelsea Clinton, so why are the Obama children being treated differently? It's equally amazing that the group was able to outmaneuvered the Metro's tangled web of regulations to get approval for the posters. 

PCRM President Neal Barnard, a nutrition researcher, says he received a phone call regarding the posters Aug. 4 (a day after they went up) from Associate Counsel Karen Dunn and Deputy Associate Counsel Ian Bassin. "They're very nice people. I like them a lot," Barnard says. "But they called and said: Please take those down, you can't mention the kids and so forth. . . . They felt that mentioning the president's children was off-limits. They said [they're] not going to allow the use of their daughters as leverage." Source: The Washington Post

According to the Washington Post, the posters, several of which appear in a corridor leading from Amtrak gates to the Metro platforms, are large, wall-mounted displays, strategically placed to catch the eye of Hill commuters. The advocacy group's message will be ineffective because of the swirling controversy and the fact that it is a deliberate dig at the Obama children. There are many more children whose parents are affluent, so targeting the president's children was a cheap shot by PCRM. Their message of fighting for fairness for disadvantaged children will fall on deaf ears because of the budding fight with the White House. No-one will remember them for their fight for the poor kids, they'll be remembered, much like Ty Inc. and the two dolls named Sasha and Malia, and the fact that they had to change the names of the dolls.

Back to the poster child, Jasmine Messiah. She's hardly a disadvantaged child. Her mother, Sarah Messiah, is an epidemiologist at the University of Miami. She spoke before the House and Senate on childhood obesity as part of a conference organized by PCRM. It's very disingenuous on their part to act as though they really care for the plight of the disadvantaged and use a child who is clearly not disadvantaged to further their cause.