That Dress! And So It Begins...

The first thought that entered my mind when Michelle Obama walked onto the stage at Grant Park on Tuesday night was "Mrs. President-Elect, what were you thinking?  That has got to be the ugliest dress I've ever seen."  And then I wanted to slap myself.  Hard.  What does it matter?  I felt like I was getting sucked into a time warp.  Was it really 16 years ago that the newspapers were all agog at Hillary's poor taste in clothes and spinning mad stories about who and what she'd wear at the Inauguration? 

Are we really that shallow, particularly in the midst of an economic crises and two terrible wars, that we have to spend even a moment criticizing an apparel choice?

In a word, YES - we are that shallow.  The dress WAS ugly, and while it did project a young and hip attitude, the red flameswere very jarring, and it just didn't seem to fit Mrs. Obama's personality (as well as her body).  It was also RED.  While I get really annoyed with the whole Red State/Blue State color thing, I'd think that on that night, for that appearance, she'd wear her party's colors, or at the very least, not the colors of the other party.  Michelle Obama will be the most soignée First Lady that America will have since the Kennedy Administration, but Tuesday night she looked a bit more Hillary circa 1992  than Jackie 1962.