MAKING OUT LIKE A BANDIT – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  Whatever happened to the struggling Obama family?  You'd think, from the way Obama sometimes talks, that he was at poverty's door during most of his life, the guys on the bread lines just waiting for him.

Well, no more.  News stories circulating this morning report that the Obamas may be worth as much as ten million dollars:

Apparent from President Obama's annual financial disclosure statement, released today:

He is a wealthy man, with assets of as much as $10 million.

He has a hefty stake in JPMorgan Chase, the megabank that just made a bad $2 billion bet. Obama has an account worth between $500,000 and $1 million.

Despite the nation's $15.6 trillion debt, he is a believer in government paper. More than half of his assets are in Treasury bills and notes.

The disclosure statement lists assets and liabilities in dollar ranges, so pinpointing the president's net worth is difficult. His assets appear to tally between $2.6 million and $9.9 million. He holds a mortgage on his Chicago home of $500,000 to $1 million.

COMMENT:  Aside from the gossip factor, this is an important political story.  One of the arguments Obama hopes to use against Romney is that he's a rich man out of touch with the country.  Now we see that Obama is a rich man, and he hasn't exactly shown much in common with the guy next door.  That Indonesian childhood doesn't help much, either, unless you yearn for a president who can read street signs in Jakarta.

I think this financial report robbed Obama of an emotional issue.  He can't afford to lose many more.

May 16, 2012