Everywoman Michelle Obama captured on camera shopping at Target
posted at 10:34 am on September 30, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Double Standards ]
Celebrities in this day and age are just no match for those wily paparazzi. Take First Lady Michelle Obama. She recently piled the kids into the family SUV and drove over to the local Target to pick up a few odds and ends for the White House—you know, an economy pack of toilet paper, that sort of thing. Naturally, the girls nagged her to buy them earrings, makeup, and the like—girls will be girls—but a budget is a budget. As Mrs. O. was unloading her shopping cart at the checkout, she had a momentary fright when she was unable to find the coupons she had clipped, but there they were.
And so were the photogs (those sneaky devils), snapping shots of the First Lady in her shades, Nike cap, and pedal pushers.
OK, I’m fooled. I completely buy into the notion that Michelle Obama—the same person who took an $80,000-a-day vacation on the Costa del Sol and wears $42,150 diamond bracelets—clips coupons and shops at discount stores with the rest of the starving masses.
One might say, as the Associated Press did in its coverage of the ostensible shopping spree, that it was all part of energizing the base—that Mrs. Obama is her husband’s secret campaign weapon. But then why the get-up, which according to Scott Pelley of CBS was so effective a disguise that no recognized her until she reached the checkout?
CBS quotes Kristina Schake, communications director for the First Lady, as commenting:
It is not uncommon for the First Lady to slip out to run an errand, eat at a local restaurant or otherwise enjoy the city outside the White House gates.
In other words, this stunt was in no way a transparent effort on the president’s part to suggest that he and his are just working stiffs, trying to make ends meet?
If you believe that, Target has a bridge it is willing to sell you. It’s located in aisle 6.
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“Mommy, why are there 13 Abrams Tanks and 5 Heavily armed Suburbans parked outside the store? And who is that lady with 6 men in dark suits with weapons following her?”
preallocated on September 30, 2011 at 10:39 AM
heavily armored. lol … it’d be funny to see Suburbans with a big 50 cal on the roof.
preallocated on September 30, 2011 at 10:40 AM
A total set up, for a photo op. Gawd, any moron could see thru that. Well anyone but a liberal moron.
capejasmine on September 30, 2011 at 10:47 AM
I didn’t know they sell Wagyu beef at Target?
catmman on September 30, 2011 at 11:10 AM
For the cost of attending one $38,000 a plate Obama fundraiser ‘dinner’, I could buy enough food and toiletries to last my household about five years at Target. Maybe longer.
catmman on September 30, 2011 at 11:12 AM
Ask and ye shall receive.
Alden Pyle on September 30, 2011 at 11:13 AM
What bothers me is not the staged photo op. What does bother me is that they think we would be fooled by such a cheap photo op.
rbj on September 30, 2011 at 11:16 AM
Or if a chain gun is more to your liking
Alden Pyle on September 30, 2011 at 11:19 AM
Was she looking for another gift for the Queen?
Blake on September 30, 2011 at 11:43 AM
I just wonder how much money target and all the surrounding businesses lost from having mo, kids, ss, and everyone else following her around and closing streets off? When I saw this yesterday, I almost gagged! mo at target? Give me a break! What next, seeing mo in a pick-up(gov. motors of course) with gun rack?
L
letget on September 30, 2011 at 11:44 AM
My favorite was when she was caught in the $500 dollar sneakers when she made an appearance at a soup kitchen.
Blake on September 30, 2011 at 11:44 AM
I’d love to see the 360 view with all the secret service guys and gals in the background and the photographers… LOL
Fallon on September 30, 2011 at 11:51 AM
Must be expensive, buying toilet paper for all the people in the White House. You’d think there would be some government agency to provide those types of supplies for a federally-owned and managed building . . . .
Oh well, I guess a brilliant, beautiful, super-model-esque, expert gardener and home-remodeler, wife-and-mother’s job is never done, is it?
AZCoyote on September 30, 2011 at 11:56 AM
mudskipper on September 30, 2011 at 11:59 AM
Funny how the photos don’t include the information that Michelle Obama has a staff of over 90 people (including a full-time make-up artist and a stylist).
If she really needed something from Target (or any other store), she could send one or more of her taxpayer-paid minions out to get it for her, at much less cost and bother to everyone.
AZCoyote on September 30, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Turn out the lights, the thread is over!
Mary in LA on September 30, 2011 at 12:09 PM
Uh, that’s Tar-zhay, HP. And I imagine what Michelle was really there for was the Missoni collection. Tar-zhay is ultra-hip these days. No wonder Michelle misses it.
J.E. Dyer on September 30, 2011 at 1:12 PM
J.E., that was what I thought, too, until I saw the shopping cart. The ones at Tar-zhay are diamond-encrusted—kind of life Bo’s dog collar.
Howard Portnoy on September 30, 2011 at 1:20 PM
I’ll bet the White House PR staff had to go through several days of negotiations with Michelle to even get this done:
“Can’t I go to Nieman Marcus at the Mazza Gallarie?”
“We don’t think that would convey the type of shopping image the public is looking for, Michelle.”
“Well you’re damn sure not getting me into a Walmart, David. If you want that you can just haul your ass over there with Biden and go shopping youself…”
jon1979 on September 30, 2011 at 2:02 PM
She won’t find it. Sold out of all the best stuff on the first day. Crashed their servers.
AZCoyote on September 30, 2011 at 3:51 PM
Why are they bothering with Papparazzi? They could just lift her entire shopping event from the store’s security cameras, the same as they’d do for you or me in the event we buy something too salty, cholesterol un-friendly, or God forbid, ammo.
Robert17 on September 30, 2011 at 3:55 PM
Their arrogance is unsurpassed………
ultracon on September 30, 2011 at 5:47 PM
K-mart too pedestrian for Queen Michelle?
coldwarrior on September 30, 2011 at 6:23 PM
Especially when the residents are so full of …
MJBrutus on September 30, 2011 at 6:33 PM
The LA Slimes shows its typical sycophancy in the very first sentence in its article on the subject:
I looked in vain for even the slightest trace of irony. There was none.
However, the comments made up for it in a schadenfreudelicious kind of way.
Mary in LA on September 30, 2011 at 7:24 PM
Shopping is fun.
BKeyser on September 30, 2011 at 7:49 PM
I think this is horrible timing even for them
tomas on October 1, 2011 at 8:06 AM
B.O.: “Hey Babe, my approval rating is in the tank and they think we are living like Louis XIV. Can ya slip on down to Target and buy some sh!t just like the hoi polloi?”
M.O. “Well, OK. But this is gonna cost you big time.”
BigAlSouth on October 1, 2011 at 8:27 AM
Isn’t Target a French owned company? She couldn’t find an American store in DC? She must be in one of those job training programs learning how to be an ordinary citizen again for when her husband loses his job.
Kissmygrits on October 1, 2011 at 9:06 AM
Where’s a “flash mob” when you need one?
chewydog on October 1, 2011 at 3:20 PM
I saw this on Yahoo and they weren’t allowing comments on the story. Cowards.
gitarfan on October 1, 2011 at 8:50 PM
Look who’s shopping at China’s Outlet!
ericdijon on October 1, 2011 at 10:17 PM
I LOLed!
“Pardon me, is this the line for returns?”
Mary in LA on October 3, 2011 at 2:17 PM