Let them wear Reeboks!

You would think a President and First Lady who present themselves as champions of the poor and downtrodden and constantly excoriate the greedy rich (including small business owners who are the backbone of this country) would watch their own images. After all, if Sarah Palin's temporary wardrobe rated becoming a campaign issue, surely Michelle's extravagant tastes deserve the same scrutiny.

So I was interested to see Obama turned out in her gym togs in suede Lanvin sneakers that cost $540 a pop - and at a poverty function no less. Isn't that the fashion equivalent of the words attributed to Marie Antoinette, "Let them eat cake"? (See Daily News article .) Fashion Editor Amy Diluna reports that "when curious reporters" asked about the expensive shoes, Michelle's spokesman "sniffed" saying, "They're shoes." That's no doubt what Imelda Marcus said when asked about her shoe collection.

To be honest I've never heard of Lanvin. My idea of haute couture is L.L. Bean, Land's End, and the local thrift store. (Goodwill has some great buys and you can help the handicapped at the same time.) I thought I splurged when I spent $60 on my last pair of sneakers. Don't ask me the brand; I just bought the ones that were most comfortable.

Frankly I don't care how the Obamas spend their money or how much they give (or don't give) to charity. But I do care about double standards and hypocrisy and I find the liberal left, in general, to be a hypocritical bunch. They will launch a vicious attack on conservative greed while they fly in a pizza chef for dinner. Their idea of charity is another government tax and another program transferring wealth. They preach austerity to the paeons while they live high on the hog themselves, gad around the country in private jets and stretch limos, and claim to offset their lavish lifestyles with carbon credits.

Here's what candidate Obama said last year at this time about the American lifestyle.

We can’t drive our SUVs and, you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on, you know, 72 degrees at all times, whether we’re living in the desert or we’re living in the tundra and then just expect every other country is going to say OK, you know, you guys go ahead keep on using 25 percent of the world’s energy, even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we’ll be fine. Don’t worry about us. That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen.

So where was Michelle's leadership? Shouldn't she be illustrating the austerity her husband wants the rest of us to embrace?

Poor Marie Antoinette has gone down in history for something she never said, but it provides a good paraphrase for this post. "Let them wear Reeboks."

Right, Michelle?