1. Any director worth his or her metaphorical salt would tell you this: Michelle’s outfit was flagrant, outrageous and intentional upstaging, a cardinal sin in live theater, which, of course, appearances like this one are. Ann Althouse, who flagged this scene yesterday before I came across it, zeroed in on what is the problem, though inadequately, writing, “One giant face, larger than the face of the wearer, feels quite obtrusive.” No Ann, it IS intrusive, and deliberately so, but then, that’s Michelle, isn’t it?
One’s eyes are drawn immediately to the big face, away from the former President of the United States and the first black POTUS, who by virtue of those distinctions is supposed to be the star of this moment. Michelle, however, always a proud narcissist, has decided that she should be the focus of attention with a design that pulls everyone’s eyes to her hips and crotch. Classy!
That’s not all: the skirt compels the question, “Who IS that?” Knowing the Obamas, I thought it might be a civil rights activist or a young black artist. So the dress automatically gives Michelle an excuse to talk about her mother, although the event has absolutely nothing to do with her mother. Wearing that thing is in the same category as wearing a flashing neon arrow on one’s head with the legend, “Look at me!” or perhaps “Look at me, not the simp standing to my left!” Michelle would have achieved a similar effect by having a live peacock strapped to her head or wearing Groucho glasses.
2. Michelle’s behavior and comments for over a year now have hinted at deep resentment of and contempt for her husband, and this stunt follows the pattern. She was showing disrespect to a former President at an event promoting his new Presidential library honoring him, not her, by making their appearance about Michelle and her dead mother as he stood by.
3. The fact that Barack appeared to accept this insult makes the episode worse. Presidents are role-models for as long as they live. Barack Obama is modeling the progressive ideal of a beta male, and not for the first time. Oh look, he’s crying. At a dress design! Isn’t he wonderful? (I think there is a strong possibility that Obama was really crying because his domineering wife had one again hijacked one of their joint appearances.)
4. This month all three former First Ladies in recent Democratic Presidencies have demonstrated bad taste, excessive self-importance, and ethics voids. Is that a coincidence? Maybe, but I don’t think so. The ex-FLOTUSes of GOP Presidents know their place and have appropriately stayed out of the spotlight once they left the White House, while Jill, Hillary and Michelle keep fighting for center stage. Marrying a man who gets elected President is moral luck, not a personal achievement.
5. As always, the mainstream media’s pro-Obama bias is nauseating, and more evidence of just how partisan and incapable of objectivity our rotting Fourth Estate has become. “Look of the Week: Michelle Obama honors her late mother in a custom-made skirt” slobbered CNN, as it went on to do a retrospective on Michelle’s other fashion coups. “Michelle Obama’s Skirt Makes Husband Barack Obama Tear Up With Meaningful Tribute During Rare Date Night” was the headline at InStyle. “Michelle Obama Pays Tribute to Her Late Mother With a Meaningful Fashion Choice” announced Vogue without honestly speculating on the real meaning of that thing, one of which I believe could be “I am so over being the beard for my gay husband.”
Does anyone doubt that if Melania wore a skirt with a giant face on it in a public appearance, all of the knives would come out at every news source?
Now here’s a quiz: Which former First Lady’s conduct this week exposed the worst character? Rate them 1 to 3.
1. Dr. Jill Biden’s dishonest comments about her husband’s obvious dementia;
2. Hillary Clinton’s hindsight claims about the 2024 election, or
3. Michelle’s “Look at me, not him!” outfit?
Ethics Alarms 
I would say Hilary’s conduct is mitigated by the fact that she is a legitimate political figure in her own right. She has her own limelight and no longer needs to stand in Bill’s.
Thus, her bad conduct this week was not as a former First Lady, but as a failed Presidential candidate. She may still have the worst character, but, in this competition, Biden and Obama have to be worse.
-Jut
My vote for the worst option is “Dr. Jill”.
I had not considered the upstaging potential of the skirt and just thought it looked dumb. However, I am not a clothing person and pay little to no attention to what people wear unless they really make me do so. In addition, because getting dressed for these events is not an immediate thing, Barack could have spoken up at any time and changed the script. He chose not to. Therefore, I cannot vote for Michelle.
Hilary, while just a horrible person, has always been a horrible person and for her ridiculous statements about why the Democratic party lost, gets the Julie Award from me. Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, Hilary has to tell the people that they were wrong to vote for who they voted for, and do so in a tasteless way. I dislike her and find her a horrible person, but attacking someone else for the problems she identifies is her modus operandi and I don’t think people take her that seriously.
Dr. Jill betrayed her husband, publicly and humiliatingly on stage in the worst of all ways, especially given his health. Michelle’s betrayal could have been stopped by her husband at any time. Hilary is not the wife to anyone that she attacked. Jill is showing the world what elder abuse can look like and getting praised for it. That seems more egregious than the other former FLOTUS’s.
That being said, I am not sure I’d cross the street to interact with any one of these women.
Sarah wrote, “Dr. Jill betrayed her husband, publicly and humiliatingly on stage in the worst of all ways, especially given his health.”
Agreed. Jill wins, hands down. I would add to it that she treated her husband like a slobbering preschooler – “You answered all the questions! Who loves her little boy? Me! I love my Joey! Kiss, kiss!” Not only did she betray her husband, she betrayed the nation by not stopping the train. She was enamored of the power and would do anything to retain it. But, Jill did not act alone. She had legions of people in her camp pushing the nonsense that Joe was capable of running the country.
As for Michelle, though, I have to confess that I did not see this controversy at all – perhaps because I don’t expect anything from the Obamas that is not steeped in narcissism and self-importance. When I saw the photo, I thought, “who is that on her skirt?” Then I found out it was her mom and I thought, “Oh, that’s a nice tribute.” But, then I saw it was for the inauguration of the Obama Presidential Library, and I thought, “what a terrible thing to do to her husband, who was supposed to bask in the moment of his legacy.”
While I think Pres. Obama was a terrible president, he acted presidential and generally defended the office itself. He has a right – as all former presidents do – to promote what he believes is his legacy. He is one of 47 presidents, which is a very small group of leaders of the most powerful economic and political entity on the planet. Is his library impressive? Don’t know. I hope so because it should be. George Bush the Elder’s library on Texas A&M’s campus is impressive. I haven’t been to others so I can only judge by that one.
Michelle, though, decided that the event should be about her and her lovely mom. What a jerk.
jvb
ACNE Studios? Used Bud Light’s old consulting firm for their branding, did they?
Is family/memorial clothing a black thing? I have a (white, red-hair, Scottish sur-name) first cousin once-removed who used to pick up black family reunion T-shirts at Goodwill and wear them while attending Georgia Tech. It embarrassed his mother, but apparently got no push-back at school.
I have to say it’s simply a dead heat. All three of these women have been insufferable as first ladies and ruined the brand. Way to go, ‘sixties feminists!
It’s my understanding that the Robinsons (isn’t that Michelle’s maiden name?) never approved of, never mind embraced Obama as a son-in-law and husband of their daughter. After all, his mother was white and he’d been raised by his white maternal grandparents. He’s simply not a brother. I think the skirt draws attention to the honoree’s parentage in a very divisive, condescending way. She’s saying, “I had an authentically black mother!” I bet there were a fair number of authentically black people in the audience who got the message. She might as well have led a chant of “Who’s your Mama?”