Returning to the Silly Season

The parties are mostly over and maintenance crews are cleaning up the streets in Washington. Since we gave the politicians and their supporters a brief break for frivolity, it’s only fair that we be allowed a few moments to observe some of the silliness surrounding the day’s events.

Our first item comes from Amanda Carpenter over at Town Hall. For the record, I really like Amanda. We were just having some fun yesterday with her, in fact, during an interview on Ed Morrissey’s show. But her comments on the inauguration still deserve a mention in passing.

The utter lack of ooh-ing and ah-ing over Michelle Obama’s inauguration wear should tell you something. It was bad.

She’s worn beautiful things in the past. I tend to think saturated, jewel tones (royal purple, forest green, dark teal, deep orange) look great on her. That split-pea/yellow color she wore earlier today, however, is impossible for 95 percent of women to carry off. I’d say Michelle is included in that number. She sure does seem to like that chartreuse-y tone, though.The famous JCrew outfit she wrote on Jay Leno has the same color scheme.

If that particular hue becomes a crayola crayon, I think it should be named “sour sunshine.”

Really, Amanda? Of all the events of the day, our takeaway should be that the First Lady isn’t enough of a clothes horse? In her defense, Ms. Carpenter (assuming that is her name now, since she just got married) makes an effort to explain why this is important.

For all you men out there, understand clothes and makeup are like football for women. We can talk about it with anybody, it’s a good icebreaker, it’s always fun. We’ll be saying “What did you think of Michelle’s dress?” at the water coolers while you all are crying about your NFL team not making it to the Superbowl.

No. I’m sorry, but… no. It’s not the same thing. It’s not in the same ballpark. It’s not even in the same state. I suppose I don’t care if you want to criticize what Michelle Obama chooses to wear, but please do NOT try to compare it to football. The Superbowl is in less than two weeks, and it is an event of such magnitude that the election of Barack Obama as president is nearly as important. Try to keep that in mind when your husband returns home. Hey… I’m just trying to help here.

A second item comes to us from The Wall Street Journal. It seems that Bernie Madoff has claimed another victim, and this time it’s PETA.

The downfall of Bernard Madoff has claimed a far-flung, new victim: a plan by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to lobby Barack Obama at the inaugural festivities to be a vegetarian.

The animal-welfare organization viewed Mr. Obama’s election as a turning point. So when PETA saw that Mr. Obama would win the election last summer, the group began looking for a way to get an audience with Mr. Obama.

Apparently their plans to “lobby” President Obama into becoming a vegan were thwarted because the scheme relied on some tickets won through an online auction. The provider fell victim to Madoff’s schemes and couldn’t deliver the tickets. Ah, what a cruel web we weave. If Barack Obama wants to ensure that I won’t support him in a single thing that he does for the next four years, he can knuckle under to PETA and start serving veggie burgers in the West Wing. Fortunately, I think our new president is more intelligent, pragmatic and has better taste in food than to fall for such nonsense. But I thought the story was odd enough to share with you today.

And last, while not really “silly” as such, I wanted to take a moment to address the spectators at the inauguration who chose to boo and heckle President Bush and Vice President Cheney. That was despicable and you should be ashamed. I was no fan of many of George W. Bush’s decisions and policies, and frankly I found Cheney to be offensive many times during his term in office. I’m also well aware that there are few limits on freedom of speech and the right to protest. But there’s a time and place for everything. Yesterday should have been a happy, joyous occasion for you if you supported President Obama’s bid for the White House. Using the opportunity to vent bile is simply lacks class and puts a blemish on what should have otherwise been a wonderful day for you.