Michelle Obama is Queen Midas, okay? Anything she touches turns to gold, whether it's her husband (she touched him and now he's about to be president) or clothing (she lets certain brands' fabrics touch her skin, and sales skyrocket).

While Sarah Palin wastes the media's time by explaining away her $150,000 wardrobe, Ms. Obama's fashion decisions — via stylist Maria Pinto — eschew Italian designers for Americana brands like J. Crew and Gap, where a $148 pricetag does not include any erroneous trailing zeroes.

But Michelle isn't in this alone; she's not donning sensible (read: attainable for the average American) frocks for the sake of fashion scribes looking for the new Jackie O.

Because forget endorsing a political candidate — when the First Lady-select endorses you, ya better capitalize on it.

“I want to ask you about your wardrobe,” Mr. Leno told her, alluding to the news media reports that Sarah Palin had a campaign clothing budget of $150,000. “I’m guessing about 60 grand? Sixty, 70 thousand for that outfit?”

“Actually, this is a J. Crew ensemble,” Mrs. Obama replied, to cheers from the audience. “Ladies, we know J. Crew. You can get some good stuff online!”

A spokeswoman for the J. Crew Group said the company had no idea Mrs. Obama would wear J. Crew until it began seeing teasers of her “Tonight Show” appearance. But it moved quickly to capitalize on it.

Marketers bought “Michelle Obama” keywords on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, built a page on the jcrew.com Web site that promoted her outfit, and told call-center representatives how to handle queries about Mrs. Obama’s fashion.

Even now, when Gmail users type an e-mail message containing the word “Obama,” they often see a J. Crew text ad promoting the “Tonight Show” outfit. [NYT]

So when you call J. Crew's 800-number, expect to be asked about whether you'd like to sign up for a J. Crew charge card and whether, for an additional $30 "donation," you'd like a Barack Obama t-shirt.