• The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Michelle Obama, the wife of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois), has resigned from the board of TreeHouse Foods, an Illinois company that sells various food products to Wal-Mart, among other retailers.
In a written statement, the candidate’s wife said, ''As my campaign commitments continue to ramp up, it is becoming more difficult for me to provide the type of focus I would like on my professional responsibilities,.”
However, her role on the company’s board has raised a lot of eyebrows recently because Barack Obama has been so critical of Wal-Mart’s wages and benefits policies. While her statement does not refer to any potential conflict of interest, the resignation gives her husband – and TreeHouse Foods – a little distance and deniability.
Obama isn’t the only one on the Democratic side with a Wal-Mart relationship to consider. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York), the apparent favorite in the race, was a member of Wal-Mart’s board while her husband served as governor of Arkansas. And former vice president Al Gore, while not yet a candidate, has made at least one trip to the retailer’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters to do his “An Inconvenient Truth” presentation; his appearance apparently was triumphant, since Wal-Mart has been public about its endorsement of many of the same environmental initiatives that Gore has been addressing.
In a written statement, the candidate’s wife said, ''As my campaign commitments continue to ramp up, it is becoming more difficult for me to provide the type of focus I would like on my professional responsibilities,.”
However, her role on the company’s board has raised a lot of eyebrows recently because Barack Obama has been so critical of Wal-Mart’s wages and benefits policies. While her statement does not refer to any potential conflict of interest, the resignation gives her husband – and TreeHouse Foods – a little distance and deniability.
Obama isn’t the only one on the Democratic side with a Wal-Mart relationship to consider. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York), the apparent favorite in the race, was a member of Wal-Mart’s board while her husband served as governor of Arkansas. And former vice president Al Gore, while not yet a candidate, has made at least one trip to the retailer’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters to do his “An Inconvenient Truth” presentation; his appearance apparently was triumphant, since Wal-Mart has been public about its endorsement of many of the same environmental initiatives that Gore has been addressing.
- KC's View:
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Who would have guessed that there would be more Democratic presidential aspirants with Wal-Mart connections than Republican hopefuls?
Though we’re guessing that any day now Mitt Romney will put out a statement that he’s bought all his shotguns at Wal-Mart and is proud of it.
