Michelle Obama, February 2008:
Obama explains that she and her husband made the choice to give up lucrative jobs in favor of community service. “We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we’re asking young people to do,” she tells the women. “Don’t go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we’re encouraging our young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of the money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond.”
Michelle Obama has taken casual to a haute new level.
While volunteering Wednesday at a D.C. food bank, the First Lady sported her usual J.Crew cardigan, a pair of utilitarian capri pants and, on her feet, a sneaky splurge: trainers that go for $540.
That’s right: These sneakers - suede, with grosgrain ribbon laces and metallic pink toe caps - are made by French design house Lanvin, one of fashion’s hottest labels. They come in denim and satin versions, and have been a brisk seller all spring.
They’re out of stock at posh Meatpacking District boutique Jeffrey, and Barneys New York boasts a limited selection of the sneaks, which are a cult favorite among fashionistas.
It’s likely Michelle got hers through Ikram, the Chicago retailer that often outfits her.
It goes without saying that a Republican First Lady who showed up at a food bank during a recession wearing $540 sneakers would never hear the end of it, let alone one who had lectured voters on learning to make do with less. But you know, it goes deeper than that. Remember how Barack Obama relentlessly mocked George W. Bush, in the tone of a petulant teenager who can’t believe what Dad told him to do, for advising Americans to “go shopping” after September 11? Well, President Bush was absolutely in the right: the nation needed reassuring, and it needed to both sustain the consumer confidence and consumer demand that are the engines of our economy, and demonstrate to the world that we don’t change our routines to satisfy terrorists.
Now, with consumer demand in the worst slump in most of our living memory, one of the things we need most of all from the White House is reassurance that it’s OK to - you guessed it - go shopping. But President Obama, who has tiptoed up to that line a few times, can’t quite bring himself to sound like Dad now that he’s the one in the driver’s seat. So, Michelle shops, while consumer demand drops. And then what happens? We get Joe Biden giving us the “we’re all gonna diiiiiieeeeee” alarm on the Today Show, telling people that he’d advise his family to avoid malls, planes, and trains. It’s OK if you go, mind you, but not Joe’s family. So much for projecting calm in a crisis.
Somehow, no matter what the state of the U.S. economy, the Michelle Obamas in and around the government will always manage to get their fancy French sneakers. I don’t begrudge them that - but I do wish they acted as if they felt the same way about the rest of us.

If you added up ALL of my shoes, not just 'sneakers', they didn't cost $540!!
USNJIMRET Friday, May 1st at 10:34AM EDT (link)Most expensive foot coverings I own are a pair of Red Wing boots and Red Wing shoes.
But then again, I hardly ever get National Press attention when I’m telling everyone else how to live their lives!
Classic Dims
smitty Friday, May 1st at 10:41AM EDT (link)Do as I say not as I do
Her bit about giving up lucrative jobs was pure bull.
Brian Hibbert Friday, May 1st at 10:51AM EDT (link)I believe her salary was something like a quarter mill. Just a bit above what I would call lucrative.
Socialism doesn’t work. It looks nice on paper, but it’s been tried and it’s failed miserably every time (usually accompanied by widespread death and suffering).
Proud member of the V.R.W.C.
Join the RedState Strike Force
Not bad for not really having a job. 'Course, the money
Achance Friday, May 1st at 11:10AM EDT (link)Hubby was funnelling in might have had something to do with it. The real issue is that people who get jobs like that think that everybody who has a high profile, high paying job got theirs the same way and does the same things.
In Vino Veritas
Michelle received a 300% pay raise after hubby gave the hosptial
Old_Crow Friday, May 1st at 1:19PM EDT (link)she worked at a million dollar earmark. Typical greedy, crooked liberal politician family - stingy with the charity donations but greedy shoving other people’s money in their pockets. Have to redirect that wealth.
How about that donation to Sidwell school, a signed magazine cover…
I’m missing Clinton more every day, and that’s sad.
At least Bill was smart enough not to try to destroy the economy.
“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” — James Madison
“So this is how liberty dies.. with thunderous applause” — Star Wars III
Michelle's Salary
navybrat Friday, May 1st at 12:40PM EDT (link)And she got that salary for basically a no-show job. Like the kind that Tony Soprano used to fight with Johnny Sack about. Come to think of it, this administration is not unlike the mafia.
I thought a big part of her job entailed getting more volunteers
bk Friday, May 1st at 1:34PM EDT (link)So she was getting paid a quarter-mil to get others to come work for free.
And her job was so very crucial that the hospital
janis Friday, May 1st at 7:31PM EDT (link)discontinued the position after she left it.
Jeebus, Dan! That pic of Michelle reminds me of
janis Friday, May 1st at 11:03AM EDT (link)some enraged alien from a movie. Wonder how fond of her the Secret Service is by now?
Oh My,
Wayne Friday, May 1st at 11:11AM EDT (link)She DOES look like a female Wookie.
“Hell, these are Marines. Men like them held Guadalcanal, and took Iwo Jima, Baghdad ain’t s–t”. Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly, USMC, Deputy CG, First MEF
A moment of truth preserved forever!
davo119 Friday, May 1st at 7:20PM EDT (link)Just speculating here but from this photograph Michelle could easily eclipse Hillary as “Lady Macbeth of the White House”. That kind of rage is not easily controlled for very long.
Never give in! Never! Never! Never!
There's a picture of these modest shoes here...
Brian Faughnan Friday, May 1st at 11:03AM EDT (link)http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/washington-whispers/2009/04/30/michelle-obamas-latest-fashion-statement-shiny-sneakers.html
You have to love Obama’s staff trying to turn it into a non-issue. ‘They’re just shoes’ seems to be the line.
Yes, and the McCains just had houses
Dan McLaughlin Friday, May 1st at 11:24AM EDT (link)nt
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” - Winston Churchill
Gastly
abominablekait Friday, May 1st at 12:25PM EDT (link)Man, them things is tacky! I wouldn’t be caught dead in flaming neon pink-tipped sneakers. I don’t care if they’re vogue French. $540 for those things? That’d pay off most of my student loan debt.
Public service will be the new wall street. Lots of money in it these days. nt
Common_Cents Friday, May 1st at 11:23AM EDT (link)“Never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake.” Napoleon - Well, unless he is ruining your country! Common Cents
A cult of personality arises when a country’s leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.[1] Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships.
Again:
jimmuy8 Friday, May 1st at 11:27AM EDT (link)These people think of themselves as royalty.
Day after day, their actions confirm this view of themselves.
this is so scary
mom2oneson Friday, May 1st at 11:29AM EDT (link)Now nursing is going to be infiltrated by a bunch of lazy unambitious people. The academic part of it was hijacked by feminist years ago but apart from their liberal ideas they are not lazy and run things like a boot camp. Most entering are second career type of people or young college aged women that at least could pass an 8th grade math test.
I want Mrs Obama to explain who is going to pay for all these social workers?
Why do they have corporations so much? These companies that provide so many jobs for people of low educational levels with benefits improve people’s lives far more than any government paid k-12 teacher or social worker.
It continues to show that the Obamas believe the
robmikpet Friday, May 1st at 2:23PM EDT (link)best for the country IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what really IS best for the country. High taxes, big government, etc. But what makes America great is an unstoppable entrepreneurial class who want to become rich and along the way employ hundred of thousands of Americans in tax paying - not tax consuming - jobs.
Microsoft and Apple are “single generation” companies from nothing to where they are now, amazing.
But if everybody does public service
johnt Friday, May 1st at 11:45AM EDT (link)who is left to pick up the tab ? Does not this thought cross the minds of our altruistic deep thinkers? Everybody slobbering over everybody else, everybody taking in everybody’s wash, who pays the bill ?
Why of course, the despised productive class. The phony nobility of it is sickening.
Ayn Rand, where are you at this hour of our need?
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
Goose, Golden Egg
JustLeaveMeAlone Friday, May 1st at 2:05PM EDT (link)Any questions?
“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” Thomas Jefferson
Love That Pic
Swamp_Yankee Friday, May 1st at 12:09PM EDT (link)Libs and the MSM have made an art from of using pics of Reps looking dumb or mean. Everyone should save that one for their files.
Not Dead Yet!
Its OK, there will be a new similar pic next week.
olsmithie Friday, May 1st at 12:14PM EDT (link)I can’t imagine living like that, all that rage just churning around inside.
Don’t worry , be happy!
Regards
Michelle Madame Dufarge Obama
navybrat Friday, May 1st at 12:45PM EDT (link)This woman is cut from the same bolt of cloth as Hillary. She is nefarious on all counts. Her cozy relationship with Bernie Dorn is just one of the many things I find disconcerting about her. And let’s not forget, it was Michelle who introduced Obama to the good Rev. Wrong (I’m sure she didn’t need to twist his arm). She’s every bit the shrill harpy that Hillary is. Maybe even worse.
Great photo of Michelle,
johnt Friday, May 1st at 1:53PM EDT (link)No doubt about it. she certainly is beautiful.
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
$600 rebate checks
Shoebox Friday, May 1st at 2:28PM EDT (link)I guess we finally know what Michelle thinks last year’s rebate checks could be used for!
LOL!!! nt
mom2oneson Friday, May 1st at 9:06PM EDT (link)Bigger fish to fry
citadelsdaughter Friday, May 1st at 3:13PM EDT (link)A new judge to be appointed on the supreme court and we’re worried about sneakers? This is petty.
it is called walking and chewing gum
Streiff Friday, May 1st at 3:25PM EDT (link)apparently that is beyond you
“A man does what he can and endures what he must.”
This has never, ever, ever stopped the other side
Dan McLaughlin Friday, May 1st at 7:09PM EDT (link)which made a big deal during the election about McCain’s houses, McCain’s shoes, Palin’s wardrobe, Palin’s tanning bed, Palin’s daughter’s boyfriend…need I continue? We could do this for days. Heck, if we’re talking SCOTUS let’s not even get into what they threw at Roberts, or Alito, or Thomas.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” - Winston Churchill
Absolutely Right!
quill67 Friday, May 1st at 8:43PM EDT (link)I understand this article is trying to point out that Dems are hypocrites, but I do not like when they do and I do not like it when our side does it either. So she bought an expensive pair of shoes! It is her money and she can do with it what she wants. How about pictures of expensive things that liberals own against the pictures they chastise “the rich” for buying with a caption asking which of these is acceptable to purchase and which is not?!
My point is I just wish they would let people who earn more keep more of what they earn. The key is that they EARNED it!
Buy all the shoes you want
mom2oneson Friday, May 1st at 9:09PM EDT (link)but don’t tell us to cut back at the same time. Her spending the money on $600 shoes would be a non-issue if he wasn’t telling us to sacrifice.
Yeah?
Steph C Friday, May 1st at 11:07PM EDT (link)Why don’t you tell me exactly how she earned it. Sitting on a hospital board getting her cut of the kickbacks the hospital was getting from her husband’s earmarks while he was a member of Congress?
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Nope, not petty.
spedteacher Friday, May 1st at 8:52PM EDT (link)It is just one more straw on the camel’s back. It just keeps on adding and adding and adding…
The last straw will be coming up REAL SOON.
You forgot to drag racism into it somehow, citadelsdaughter.
Moe Lane Friday, May 1st at 8:59PM EDT (link)New at this?
Check out my new blog at http://moelane.com/.
http://twitter.com/moelane
My (blogging-related) wish list.
Might just be coincidence, but citadelsdaughter and
janis Friday, May 1st at 9:20PM EDT (link)miss ugly mouth below signed up at the same time, give or take two days, and neither made a comment until this thread came up. Hmmmm………
OMG what's with that photo?!
Jewels Friday, May 1st at 4:02PM EDT (link)And is she wearing dentures??
Jeebus, the First Lady has one ugly mouth
tankertodd Friday, May 1st at 7:15PM EDT (link)To quote Rodney, the last time I saw a mouth like that it had a HOOK in it!
Just sayin…
———————————
The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race - Chief Justice Roberts
Hmmmm...
I created an account to make racist comments about African Americans. Friday, May 1st at 8:55PM EDT (link)Even with $540.00 sneakers still closely resembles a monkey……
My email address is Khaching@aol.com.
I hope you weren't using that email for a resume, troll.
Moe Lane Friday, May 1st at 9:02PM EDT (link)Actually, that’s a lie: I hope that you were.
Check out my new blog at http://moelane.com/.
http://twitter.com/moelane
My (blogging-related) wish list.
Why would ?
SteveLA Friday, May 1st at 9:08PM EDT (link)Why would Ms. Elizabeth Simpson of Rancho Cordoba resort to such vile conduct and speech?
______________________________________
Competency over ideological purity
Hmmm...
Jack_Savage Friday, May 1st at 10:45PM EDT (link)A thirty-five year old potter, who is also a long-distance runner, should know better.
Living like royalty
fiery Friday, May 1st at 9:44PM EDT (link)I am not surprised by the $540 sneakers! Let’s look at just a few of the luxuries
they have been indulging in since the inauguration. First, think of the money that was spent on the inauguration. After this, the partying continued with
weekly cocktail parties where $100 steak was served. Then, they splurged on a
swing set which cost only $14,000. Every week Mr. Obama uses Air Force
One to fly somewhere to give another campaign speech. They are living like
royalty and it is us peons who are having to foot (no pun intended) the bill. I’m
sure that Michelle will say that she did not buy the shoes and that they were
given to her. Why is the MSM not harping about her $540 sneakers? They
crucified the RNC for purchasing clothes for Palin during the campaign. I guess
Republicans don’t need to dress for success, just the Democrats. This is all so
disturbing to watch since it is our money that the Obama’s are spending!
Things that (most) women like
citadelsdaughter Friday, May 1st at 10:06PM EDT (link)Shoes, babies, flowers, courtesy, picnics, fruit salad, a new dress, family,
friends, sunny days, a day off, a call, a card and a pleasant chat. I’m thinking that none of our chatter’s have even noticed how terrific Condi always looks even her shoes.
Condi never told us
Dan McLaughlin Friday, May 1st at 11:02PM EDT (link)to quit our jobs and stop making so much money.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” - Winston Churchill
To paraphrase Dolly Parton
scarlettjinx Sunday, May 3rd at 4:30PM EDT (link)It sure takes a lot of money to look that tackey.
Obama thinks gun owners are bitter- Gun owners think Obama is a moron.
Don’t mess with Texas- we’re armed