Michelle Obama’s casual slip-out trip to Target is being met with scepticism, as media personalities deride the ‘incognito’ visit as a well-timed PR stunt.
Only last month the First Lady was accused of indulging in luxury holidays worth $10million dollars on the tax payers’ dime.
And barely a week ago the 47-year-old mother-of-two was criticised for wearing $40,000 diamonds to a fund-raising event. (…)
Show the world that she really can do recession chic, Mrs Obama headed to a Target store in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday afternoon.
Secret Service officers reportedly swept the store on Highway 1, thirty minutes before Mrs Obama popped in for her housewives’ essentials- dog food and cleaning products. (…)
Mrs Obama seemed at pains to appear extra down to earth by pushing her own cart and carrying her own shopping bags, examiner.com reported.
Associated Press photographer Charles Dharapak caught a few images of Mrs Obama reaching the check out.
But conservative blogger Michelle Malkin mocked the idea that it was a chance meeting as, ‘snortalicious’.
Malkin blogged: ‘She left the bling at home. But her shirt and sunglasses are about as “incognito” as Lady Gaga’s outfit at her younger sister’s graduation.’
Radio host Rush Limbaugh also denounced the visit on his show as a ‘photo-op’.
He said: ‘It has gotten so bad they had to send Moochelle out there in a Lady Gaga-type getup,’
‘What a phony baloney plastic banana good time rock-and-roller optic photo op this was!’
‘You think the AP has photographers waiting outside stores for Moochelle to show up?” Limbaugh asked. “Who do they think we are?’ (…)
And only on Monday Dharapak had photographed Mrs Obama inside the White House when she made an announcement about womens’ STEM career issues.
Certainly the White House have not so far denied that Dharapak was tipped off. (…)
The trip will be a slap in the face for Target’s biggest competitor Walmart.
As part of her campaign to beat childhood obesity the First Lady has formed a partnership for the Let’s Move! campaign with Walmart, who, unlike Target, have promised to cut down on salt, sugar and fat in their food, the Foodorama blog reported.
Mrs Obama is currently involved in a major fund-raising effort in the run-up to her husband’s re-election campaign.
But she will have to work hard to counter her spendthrift reputation. In August White House sources claimed that the First Lady has spent $10million of U.S. taxpayers’ money on vacations in the past year.
Calling the 47-year-old mother-of-two a ’vacation junkie’ they described her penchant for five-star hotels, where she splashes out expensive treats such as massages.
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