Obamas: $1000 good, $1200 not so good

I don't like to comment on American politics much, but Michelle Obama just said something singularly stupid:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, complained the government’s $600 economic stimulus check was only enough to buy “a pair of earrings” while stumping for her husband.

“You're getting $600 - what can you do with that?” Mrs. Obama said in Pontiac, Michigan last week. “Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn't pay down every bill every month. The short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good that first month when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings."

She made these remarks at a “working women’s roundtable discussion.”

Others are noting how elitist it sounds for a candidate's wife to think that most American women spend $600 on each pair of earrings, but what bothers me is that Obama's big plan to help families with their energy bills is to give them $1000 each:

We'll provide a $1,000 emergency energy rebate for every family that will offset the increased costs of gas for a working family for the next four months. Or, it could be used to pay any of your other bills.

So according to the Obama camp, giving $1200 to each family is ludicrous but giving them $1000 each is a brilliant stimulus package.

I don't think Michelle was a math major at Princeton.