Sesame Street is the longest-running children's programme on American television, and has brought us much loved characters including the Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and the inseparable Burt and Ernie.

In an episode set to air later today, America's First Lady will help mark the show's great birthday, by palling up with Big Bird.

Previews show that Michelle and her feathered friend will bond over being the longest on the street, and club together to promote healthy eating and nutrition.

The episode, which was taped back in May, also sees the First Lady having a run in with that cheeky chappy Elmo, and planting vegetable seeds with a crowd of children.

‘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!' she said on the day of shooting.

‘I think it's probably the best thing I have done so far in the White House,' she added. ‘We were there talking about healthy eating and nutrition, and it's just been a thrill.'

Michelle Obama becomes the subject of a new book that hails her style and wardrobe for influencing the fashion pages.

The Face of Fashion Democracy, published by Hachette, celebrates the US First Lady’s secret from the campaign trail to the White House.

The tome glances at the mum-of-two’s designer dresses to reasonable brands with more than 120 pictures, reports the Telegraph.

It also features interviews from some of Michelle’s favorite designers, such as Isabel Toledo, Jason Wu, Michael Kors, Maria Pinto and Isaac Mizrahi.

Simon Doonan, the British creative director of Barneys, the chic New York clothes store Barneys, also praised Michelle, often dubbed the First Lady of Fashion, saying. "Mrs Obama has a nuanced but inspired style of dressing. She is a connoisseur who knows how to go beyond a simply conventional approach and inject her style with a dash of idiosyncracy. Nothing great, always appropriate, but never boring or conventional."

A spokeswoman for the First Lady's office says Sasha & Malia Obama received their H1N1 vaccines last week after the immunizations were made obtainable to Washington, D.C. school children. The White House physicians apply for and received the vaccines through the DC Department of Health, "using the similar process as every other vaccination site in the District."

The President and the First Lady has not received the H1N1 vaccine, says the spokeswoman in a statement, "and they will wait until the needs of the priority groups identified by the CDC ... have been met.'

The Centers for Disease Control identifies that priority group as children and young people up to the age of 24, pregnant women, health care workers, and older people who have, “health conditions associated with higher risk of medical complications from influenza."

All four of the Obama's have received the regular flu vaccine.

President Obama has a competition at home. It seems Americans view his wife Michelle more favorably than him, indicating a reversal of fortunes since his election last November.

A latest poll shows a surge in positive views of the first lady even as her husband’s ratings have eroded.

Michelle Obama is now viewed more favorably than the president, and her standing is almost 50 percent higher than Vice President Joe Biden.

As the first anniversary of Obama’s election approach, the USA Today/Gallup Poll taken over the past week finds:

* Obama is viewed favorably by 55 percent, unfavourably by 42 percent.

Non-Hispanic whites are regularly split, 49 percent-49 percent, while his rating among blacks is overwhelmingly positive, 90 percent-9 percent.

The day after his election, on Nov 5, 2008, his overall favorable score was 68 percent-27 percent.

* Michelle Obama viewed favorably by 61 percent, unfavorably by 25 percent. Her status among non-Hispanic whites is 57 percent-30 percent; among blacks, it is 91 percent-5 percent.

About a year ago, in a USA Today poll taken Sep 5-7, 2008, her overall favorable rating was 54 percent-30 percent.

Both the Right and the Left in the United States have joined in disbelief at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama. For the Right, the decision constitutes further proof of Europe’s moral decadence, for the Left, the award seems premature and complicates Obama’s position on the house front. In fact, the award signals a cry for leadership of a global civil society that is fitfully emerging, and which an American president, exactly because of his own country’s power, is best positioned to take on.

What is global civil society? It features an internationalist outlook that transcend individual state interests - encapsulating everything from media outlets like CNN International or the English-language version of Al Jazeera television, to United Nations agencies, and the worldwide movement of non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. It refers to the kind labors of any number of relief charities operating in poor or war-torn countries. It implies, in other words, an altruism that transcends national, religious, and ethnic borders to include humanity as a entire.

President Barack Obama danced salsa with Latina star Thalia last night, but Michelle Obama was not impressed!

Obama got on the dance floor in a special Fiesta Latina agenda at the White House to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month.

He shows off his moves for a few seconds, and when he returns to his seat and tries to speak to the first lady, she appears to give him the cold shoulder.

In his weekly address, President Obama said momentum is building for health care reform, but republicans are standing firm against the plans that are make their way through Congress.

With a serious vote on a key health care bill just days away, the president and his party seem confident they have the momentum and the votes on their side.

"Health insurance reform is a complex and critical issue that deserves a vigorous national debate, and we've had one," Obama said. "The approach that is emerging includes the best ideas from republicans and democrats."

The Finance Committee statement alone is estimated to cost $829 billion over 10 years. Republicans maintain the bottom line will be $1 trillion more than that.

"It is likely that the present proposal will increase your health insurance costs, not reduce them," Florida Senator George Lemieux (r) said. "At a time when Americans are stressed to make ends meet, and the country's debt continues to rise, we should not be raising taxes."