Enough of this myth that Obama grew up in poverty

Michelle Obama paints Barack as someone who grew up in poverty.

You see, even though back then Barack was  Senator and a presidential candidate…to me, he was still the guy who’d picked me up for our dates in a car that was so rusted out, I could actually see the pavement going by through a hole in the passenger side door…he was the guy whose proudest possession was a coffee table he’d found in a dumpster, and whose only pair of decent shoes was half a size too small. . . .

Yet, here is a guy who attended the Punahou School in Hawaii from fifth through twelfth grades.  This school is often described as the school for the elite in Hawaii.  During the 2012-2013 school year tuition is $19,200, though much of the cost is covered by the school's large $174 million endowment.  

Michelle and Barack met when he was a summer associate at Sidley & Austin (he was between his first and second years at the Harvard Law School).  It is possible that Barack didn't buy a fancy car because he only needed something for the summer or that he picked up a cheap table that someone else had thrown out for a similar reason, but summer associates at Sidley & Austin are paid extremely well.  They are not living in poverty.  He was attending Harvard Law School at the time.  Life was not difficult for him.