Andrew Malcolm blogged about this so-called “homeless” person snapping a photo of Michelle Obama.

“First Lady Michelle Obama showed up Thursday as a surprise and welcome volunteer at Miriam’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen for homeless poor people not far from the White House.

She brought with her some food donated by White House staff.

The first lady served up mushroom risotto and broccoli to a long line of homeless men and women during part of herFirst Lady Michelle Obama volunteers as a food server at Miriam’s Kitchen a soup kitchen for poor homeless in Washington DC 3-5-09 lunch hour and in these photos poses for a picture by one homeless diner obviously excited to be in the first lady’s presence.

Obama said she hoped her service would cause other Americans to volunteer to help the less fortunate in their own communities.

And, of course, such images of need might also help build support for her husband’s economic and healthcare reform agenda, although a Miriam’s spokeswoman said their average “guest” has been homeless since about the time Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004.

Miriam’s is a privately funded soup kitchen about seven blocks from the White House that has 1,200 volunteers and serves about 300, mainly men, each morning. Our colleague Mark Silva has more on the volunteer work in the Swamp here.”

I’ve had the pleasure of working with the poor here and there, soup kitchen details and even working with a non-profit for a bit. I can tell you that seeing a homeless person with a cell phone is nothing. I’ve witness so-called “poor” coming in during a toy drive to pick up donated toys wearing leather jackets, cell phones and sometimes driving pretty good cars – better than mine in fact.

The fact is that we have a really poor sense of the word “poor” in this country. Many of the poor would be wealthy in truly poor countries.

I wonder if Michelle would be caught mugging if she were – and that’s a big “if”, she were truly feeding the hungry, such as this child.

When she does the deed will be noteworthy, until then it’s all dog and pony BS.

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