Macswain

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

CNN's Jeff Greenfield Is A Bigger Ass Than Evil Knievel

Here's what Greenfield said on Blitzer's show:

The senator was in New Hampshire over the weekend, sporting what's getting to be the classic Obama look. Call it business casual, a jacket, a collared shirt, but no tie.

It is a look the senator seems to favor. And why not? It is dressy enough to suggest seriousness of purpose, but without the stuffiness of a tie, much less a suit. There is a comfort level here that reflects one of Obama's strongest political assets, a sense that he is comfortable in his own skin, that he knows who he is.

If you want a striking contrast, check out Senator John Kerry as he campaigned back in 2004. He often appeared without a tie, but clad in a blazer, the kind of casual look you see at country clubs and lawn parties in the Hamptons and other toned (ph) locations.

When President Bush wanted in casual mode, he skipped the jacket entirely. Third-generation Skull and Bones at Yale? Don't be silly. Nobody here but us Texas ranchers.

You can think of Bush's apparel as a kind of homage to Ronald Reagan. He may have spent much of his life in Hollywood, but the brush-cutting ranch hand was the image his followers loved, just as the Kennedy sea ferry look provided a striking contrast with, say, Richard Nixon, who apparently couldn't even set out on a beach walk without that "I wish I had spent more time at the office" look.

But, in the case of Obama, he may be walking around with a sartorial time bomb. Ask yourself, is there any other major public figure who dresses the way he does? Why, yes. It is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who, unlike most of his predecessors, seems to have skipped through enough copies of "GQ" to find the jacket-and-no-tie look agreeable.

And maybe that's not the comparison a possible presidential contender really wants to evoke.


Jeebus --- comparing Obama to Ahmadinejad; that comes straight from the Republican playbook. How long 'til Greenfield is reminding us - with raised eyebrows, no doubt - that Obama's middle name is Hussein?

Kevin Drum takes Greenfield and the fashion-silly press to the woodshed. But as Digby points out, Kevin is missing an important point --- these fashion-dumps bare consistently taken by big media types on Democrats.

In unison now - What Liberal Media?

2 Comments:

  • How can you take a "jounalist" seriously if they devote that much time to how a candidate dresses?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:05 AM  

  • How can you take a "journalist" seriously if, instead of issues that matter to us right now, s/he's obsessively focused on an election that's two years away. I'm getting more than a little sick of all this "who's gonna run" coverage, myself.

    You don't see them talking about how Dennis Kucinich dresses while he eats tofu and drives around in his electric car...

    By Blogger Harold Phillips, at 8:12 AM  

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