Shoes and Ideology

$540 Lanvin trainers

First Lady Michelle Obama is being criticized for wearing pricey designer sneakers to hand out food to the needy.

While volunteering Wednesday at a D.C. food bank, the First Lady sported her usual J.Crew cardigan, a pair of utilitarian capri pants and, on her feet, a sneaky splurge: trainers that go for $540.

That’s right: These sneakers – suede, with grosgrain ribbon laces and metallic pink toe caps – are made by French design house Lanvin, one of fashion’s hottest labels. They come in denim and satin versions, and have been a brisk seller all spring.

Apparently she needed the ridiculously expensive but comfy shoes to walk her daughters’ new dog.

“I got up at 5:15 in the morning to walk my puppy,” she joked Thursday. “That’s how my day starts. Even though the kids are supposed to do a lot of the work, I’m still up at 5:15 a.m. taking my dog out.”

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Michelle probably got the shoes at the Ikram boutique in Chicago.

Friday: Cool Shoes!

I guess it’s no surprise by now that we are totally in love with Sarah.  No, she is no Hillary Clinton.  They really aren’t in the same league.  Hillary is ready to be president.  But in this vice presidential debate, she was more than able to stand up to Joe Biden.  It was a big mistake to underestimate her.  She may not have the foreign policy experience yet but it isn’t hard to see how she got to be governor of Alaska and have an 81% approval rating.  She comes across as smart, enthusuastic and tenacious.

I would love to see Sarah debate Brack Obama.  Something tells me she’d wipe the floor with him.  Her crisp concise delivery would be in sharp contrast to his rambling and frequently incoherent one.  As a matter of fact, Obama doesn’t stand up in contrast to anyone very well.  He also needs a lot of assistance from his party.  Everyone is pulling together to help Barack.  Pelosi, Reid and Howard Dean finagled the delegate count and got him nominated.  The whole DNC apparatus has been moved to Chicago to be at his disposal and the money is flowing to his campaign at the expense of others.  Bill Clinton is out stumping for him and is under constant criticism for not doing enough.  Hillary is pulling out all of the stops as well.  The only thing they haven’t demanded of her is that she do Obama’s debates for him.

Obama has every advantage to win this race with all of the training wheels, spotters, helmet, knee and elbow padding and a running push.  The amount of support for a presidential candidate is unprecedented.  Never before has so much been done for so long for so little.  So, why is the race still more or less a statistical tie?  Maybe because he is the weakest candidate the Democrats could have selected and the Clintons are needed to run a pseudo nominees.  But every time I see either of them on the stump for Obama, I am reminded of the glaring weaknesses of Barack Obama.  I get all nostalgic for the Clinton good old days.  And I get angry that it isn’t Hillary running instead of propping up the person who stole her place. It makes me like Obama less.

Why can’t Obama win his voters by himself?  Isn’t that his job now?  If the party was going to rely on and blame Hillary for Obama’s fate, why not put her on the ticket?  Right now, she has a thankless job.  Not only does she have to work overtime to see him win, but she gets no credit for it or her own work.  Her suggestions for the bailout bill were casually brushed aside by Obama and Reid.  Is that the way you’re supposed to treat you most faithful party member?

Obama has a lot to learn from the Clintons about what it takes to truly inspire voters.  He has a lot to learn about how to lose the arrogance and be gracious.  He has a lot to learn when it comes to not insulting voters.  He has to learn to be enthusiastic and engaging and concise like Sarah Palin, who looked last night like she didn’t need help from anybody.