I thought the focus here would be the “as of right now” gem.
As in “We’re too freaking stupid to lie our way out of this one just yet but give us time and we’ll find a way to blame the bankers, the republicans, the one percent or global warming.”
Maybe it’s just me sense I buy everything I wear from Walmart, but I could have made that dress for a lot less..
We are talking about our top-level elected officials. I'm fairly sure there were lots of Congresswomen from both parties attending the State of the Union wearing clothes that cost as much if not more, and a fair number of men with equally expensive suits. Wearing an expensive dress (or suit) to a formal occasion is not inappropriate — unless we're prepared to jump on the bandwagon of the people who were quite wrongly bashing Sarah Palin for the high-dollar clothes Republican officials purchased for her so she'd have an appropriate wardrobe for the campaign.
I'm about as much of tightwad as you can get; virtually all my suits are off-the-rack from discount men's stores and most of my day-to-day ties are from Wal-Mart, along with many of my day-to-day dress shirts. However, my mother had good fashion sense and told me — correctly — that I needed to have at least one top-quality suit for formal events. It cost her a little less than a thousand dollars back in the late 1980s to give that as a gift, and since it was well-made, I can and do still wear that suit for appropriate occasions more than two decades later.
With inflation, that suit today would probably be in the same price range as the first lady's dress.
I also drive a mid-priced American-made car that's a decade old. Quality costs, but it also lasts.
Let's blame Mrs. Obama for her wrong views, not for spending the amount of money that Republican political advisers would also be encouraging a Republican candidate's wife to spend for clothes to wear to formal events.
I’ll have to say, that dress is the best I’ve ever seen her in.
The usual attire looks like it’s upholstery material.
Price? She spends large. Our money.
The first couple earn money, whether it be his salary, her book royalties, or interest on investments. She can buy whatever she wants, as far as I'm concerned.
Yet this forum simply loves to point out how badly the folks at DU treated Laura Bush or Nancy Reagan. Apparently the Obamas don't have the hypocrisy corner to themselves.