Let them eat cake, says Obama's gesture

"A spokesman for top Italian designer Giovanni Bosco has confirmed that President-Elect Barack Obama is looking to purchase a $30,000 Harmony ring made of rhodium and encrusted with diamonds as a thank you gift to his wife Michelle. We expect the future First Lady to receive the ring in time for her husband's January inauguration ceremony. The gift is a thank you for her support throughout the last two years of campaigning."

"One of the world's rarest and most precious metals, only about 25 tons of rhodium are mined each year, setting the price at over $7,660 per ounce -- or about ten times the cost of gold."

The DailyMail asked: "Are our elected politicians mature enough to face a recession?" Does it not seem in bad taste to buy a piece of bling for his wife in a gesture so over the top in a hard recession? And contrary to his own words uttered just a few DAYS ago?

"Obama vows line-by-line budget review"
President-elect Barack Obama vowed today to get rid of federal programs that no longer make sense and run others in a more frugal way to make Washington work in tough economic times.

Obama said that to make the needed investments to create jobs, "we also have to shed the spending we don't need."

Rhodium and diamonds apparently don't qualify as unnecessary spending...