Washingtonpost news updates: Michelle

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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

State of the Union fashion: What Gabrielle Giffords, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton wore

All eyes were on President Obama last night for his State of the Union address, but Michelle Obama was always on the periphery — and she couldn’t be missed, standing out in a bright sapphire gown amid a sea of black.
Guests applaud first lady Michelle Obama during President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. (Susan Walsh - AP)

The address is not known for statement-making fashion, especially for men: Black suits and red ties or military dress were the norm, with the only colorful accessory being Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) black eye. But three women — Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) — were widely admired for what they wore. (You can read more of our State of the Union coverage over at Post Politics.)

Obama wore Los Angeles designer Barbara Tfank’s dress, which the designer described as a “criss cross bodice cap-sleeved slim dress in silk twill” to the Hollywood Reporter. Obama’s dress was sleek, and the perfect shade of Democratic blue. It’s the third time she’s worn Tfank. Previous occasions include a floral dress for a meet-and-greet with Duchess Catherine, and an emerald green cocktail dress at a 2010 awards ceremony.

Giffords‘s choice of a cheery apricot-colored jacket made her easy to spot on a crowded House floor — and everyone was angling to take a look. Just over a year since she was shot in an assassination attempt, Giffords returned to the floor for the second time since she was gravely injured, and her courage was met by resounding applause from the entire chamber, and hugs and kisses from President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and Clinton. Giffords, who announced last week that she is resigning from office, matched her bright jacket with black pants and sneakers.

Retiring Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, (D-Ariz.), center, is greeted by Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) stands at right. (Saul Loeb/AP)

Clinton brought back one of her style staples — a youthful headband, one of her go-to hairstyles when she was First Lady. She wore a black pantsuit and a triple strand of pearls. Headbands made a comeback at this year’s Golden Globe Awards, but Clinton’s thin black headband was simpler than the ones worn on the red carpet.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton greets Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) before the State of the Union speech. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

More State of the Union coverage:

VIDEO: Obama’s speech in less than 60 seconds

5 Policies to watch from the SOTU

Transcript: Read Obama’s full prepared remarks

Infographic: Breaking down the speech by issue

View the original article here

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Michelle Fenty, ex-mayor’s wife, takes job in Caribbean

Michelle Cross Fenty with Adrian, daughter Aerin and son Matthew, on the day of the 2010 primary election. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post) Farewell to the Fentys? The former first lady of D.C. has an exciting new job — in the Caribbean. According to an announcement from the Inter-American Development Bank, where she has worked the past two years, Michelle Cross Fenty has been named the bank’s representative in Trinidad and Tobago. Bank officials confirmed for us that the job is based in the capital of Port-of-Spain. Is the whole Fenty family moving? A spy recently saw her and former Mayor Adrian Fenty on an island flight — but they did not respond to messages.

Read earlier: Michelle Cross Fenty, inching into the public eye, 6/24/07

Former D.C. mayor Fenty to join Va.’s Rosetta Stone as adviser, 2/3/11

Fenty joins Klores Perry Mitchell, 7/14/11

Michelle Fenty gets weepy in rare appearance at D.C. mayoral debate (VIDEO), 9/2/10

View the original article here

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Hey, isn’t that. . .?: Rob Lowe, still here; Michelle Obama at the Hamilton

• Rob Lowe continuing his mystery trip to D.C. Monday morning, with a camera crew trailing through the lobby of the Library of Congress. Unclear what he’s filming. He resurfaced for lunch at Founding Farmers with three guests. Had the chili and a grapefruit soda, shared the brown-butter-sage popcorn.

• Michelle Obama lunching Saturday with her daughters at downtown’s new Hamilton restaurant. Chicken and biscuits, white bean soup and a bento box. The whole family wrapped up the weekend by checking out the “30 Americans” exhibit at the Corcoran Sunday afternoon.

View the original article here

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Michelle Fenty, ex-mayor’s wife, takes job in Caribbean

Read earlier: Michelle Cross Fenty, inching into the public eye, 6/24/07

Former D.C. mayor Fenty to join Va.’s Rosetta Stone as adviser, 2/3/11

Fenty joins Klores Perry Mitchell, 7/14/11

Michelle Fenty gets weepy in rare appearance at D.C. mayoral debate (VIDEO), 9/2/10

View the original article here

Friday, January 20, 2012

Michelle Obama’s complaints about Jodi Kantor book unjustified

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Michelle Obama’s complaints about Jodi Kantor book unjustified

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Melinda Henneberger,

Michelle Obama has no reason to complain about her treatment at the hands of Jodi Kantor, whose book, “The Obamas,’’ presents her in such overwhelmingly positive light that Connie Schultz’s New York Times review said admiringly that it was the first book about the Obama presidency to give the first lady her due.

So it’s more than surprising to see the first lady pushing back against .?.?. nothing, defensively telling Gayle King on “CBS This Morning,” “I guess it’s more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here and a strong woman — you know. But that’s been an image that people have tried to paint of me since the day Barack announced [that he was running for president] : That I’m some angry black woman.”

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Wowza.

I have just bought the book and have not read every word, but I have seen nothing in either the book or any quotes pulled from it that suggests the first lady is any such thing, so why put that phrase out there? As when Richard Nixon insisted, “I am not a crook,” the takeaway is not that which was intended.

Kantor tells me Michelle Obama is not depicted as any kind of angry but merely as anxious for all to go well. Is that a bad thing?

“I’ve gotten notes from liberal Democrats who don’t like Rahm [Emanuel, former White House chief of staff, with whom the first lady is characterized as having had philosophical differences,] and they say, ‘I loved your story because I always imagined Michelle Obama had our back.’?” Again, how is this a negative?

“Is it really a secret that not everything in this White House has gone perfectly?” Kantor asks. As for the push back, the author says, “My only theory is that so little has come out about the inner workings of the East Wing that her world has been very carefully guarded, and being written about is hard enough to begin with.” Gosh, Jodi, such a hater you are. Kantor says that, if anything, she feels her nuanced portrait was “humanizing.”

Of course, most story subjects would prefer hard labor to being humanized. But do the Obamas really want to put out there that writing about them, even sympathetically, is too painful for them to bear? No.

As stories of clashes between East Wing and West, and spouses and staff, go, those I’ve seen reported in “The Obamas” really boil down to — I hope you’re ready for this — staff infighting. (And in the immortal words of Clarence Thomas, whoop-dee-damn-do.) In the book, Michelle Obama is the one who comes out looking wise, right-minded and above the fray.

Which, unfortunately, is not at all how she seemed in the interview with King. There, she seemed thin-skinned. That’s especially unfortunate because it only reinforces the conservative talking point that her husband has never been vetted by an adoring press and doesn’t take criticism particularly well.

I don’t expect another sit-down with Michelle Obama after writing this, but what message does it send to be mischaracterizing how you’ve been mischaracterized to the famous best friend of one of your husband’s biggest supporters?

Though I’m sure it felt like a nice warm bath at the time, King’s gushing was not a particularly awesome optic for the White House.

Obama’s main message to Kantor in the interview was, “Hey, you are not in my head, so don’t talk about what I think or how I feel.” Fair enough, though is autobiography the only appropriate coverage, then? (With friends interviewing friends, we’re almost there already; next, it will be only blood relations who are granted interviews — and no second cousins, either.)

But what was Obama doing in the interview if not exactly what she’d accused Kantor of — that is, talking about something she knows only secondhand, given that she admitted she has not read the book?

Maybe in lashing out, she’s unleashing some frustration over criticism that has nothing to do with anything in the book.

She was due for a misstep, having had a nearly error-free few years in the White House. She is widely admired, and every time some fool does something like forward an e-mail referring to her as Mrs. YoMama, as the Republican speaker of the Kansas Houserecently did, or make a loud and unseemly public announcement about her physical appearance, as Wisconsin Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner did, it only makes them look small.

It’s got to be hard to hear such idiocy, but until now, she was too smart to punch down.

That some critics are driven wild by the idea of a black first family in the people’s house is more than obvious. But why give them what they wanted, which was a display of resentment to feast upon?

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