Obama called a hypocrite over wife's Wal-Mart link

New York: As a fluent public speaker, independent-minded wife, devoted mother and professional woman, Michelle Obama has been hailed as an invaluable asset to her husband Barack's mission to capture the Democratic 2008 presidential nomination.

Yet, while her style and performance are winning plaudits on the campaign trail, a little-reported business interest of Mrs Obama may open her husband up to one of the criticisms that politicians fear most - the taint of hypocrisy.

Re-elected

She is taking a break from her main job, as a well-remunerated Chicago hospital executive, to campaign for her husband. But she has just been re-elected to the board of an Illinois food processing company, a position she took up two years ago to gain experience of the private sector.

And the biggest customer for the pickles and peppers made by Treehouse Foods is the retail giant Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation and the bete noire of American liberals, including Obama, for its employment practices, most notably its refusal to recognise trade unions.

As the Illinois senator prepared to join the presidential fray late last year, he threw his weight behind the union-backed campaign against Wal-Mart. He declared that there was a "moral responsibility to stand up and fight" the company and "force them to examine their own corporate values".

According to the couple's tax returns, Mrs Obama earned $51,200 (Dh188,000) for her work as a non-executive director on Treehouse's board last year, on top of the $271,618 (Dh997,626) salary she was paid as a vice-president of the University of Chicago Hospitals.

Scrutinised

The apparent contradiction between Obama's political calculation to join the Wal-Mart-bashing lobby, and his wife's profitable role with a company that makes money from Wal-Mart, is being closely scrutinised by "opposition" research teams working for rival White House candidates, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.