Today's Chicago Tribune carries a frontpage article titled, "Michelle Obama's mission: Show voters humble roots."
Mrs. Obama's recollections of how she and her husband not so long ago
were deluged with bills and calls from collection agencies have become
a major component of the campaign, designed to demonstrate that Senator
Barack Obama understands financial difficulties and the folks
encountering them. He feels their pain.
The article reports that Barack Obama "by all accounts, rose from
humble beginnings and isn't that far removed from financial hardship in
his own life."
But who's providing all those accounts on which the Tribune relies?
The tenth paragraph, buried on page 23, notes that Mrs. Obama "doesn't
come with documentation to back up her story about financial hardship.
Asked to provide evidence of the Obamas' recent debt or contact from
bill collectors, a campaign aide said the family was trying to find the
records in response to a Tribune request last week but could not do so
immediately."
It may take a while. To his credit, Senator Obama released his tax returns
going back to the year 2000. On their joint 2000 return, the Obamas
reported an adjusted gross income of more than $240,000. Their
following year's AGI was over $270,000. In the past eight years, the
Obama's worst was in 2004, when their AGI was a pitiful $207,000. Thank
goodness for that wonderful child care tax credit, which the Obamas
routinely took.
So here's a couple making over $200,000 annually and in most years
quite a lot more. Yet they still had to sweat opening the mail and were
plagued by calls from collection agencies. It's little wonder that it
was only recently that Michelle (finally!) was proud to be an American.
In the meantime, I know we can depend on the Chicago Tribune and
other mainstream media outlets to confirm all those accounts proving
that the Family Obama actually experienced the difficult challenges
they're now claiming.