I take it back

Okay, yesterday I said that Obama won but I didn't have any big dramatic post for it so I just breezed by the whole thing. But it's been bugging me all day because it was a big night and a huge MOMENT when he won, so just because I haven't got something dramatic to say doesn't mean that I shouldn't say ANYTHING.

So here's my experience of Barack Obama becoming our president elect. Tuesday I was home flipping through channels (I only have very limited basic cable because I'm Heather's Debt Reduction Journey), and loading the CNN website and just HOPING. No one I have ever voted for has won an election (until now!), so I didn't want to get my hopes up. But I was really really hoping.

I was in the kitchen cooking up some mac & cheese when they called Ohio. At which point I started jumping up and down squealing like a 13 year old. There was no way McCain was going to win without Ohio. And then 9:00 came and all of the broadcasters were silent for a good 10 seconds before calling the race. And then silent for a long time with the cameras on the crowd in Chicago going nuts. I was going nuts. I sat on my couch thinking "This is better than Oscar night. This is HUGE."

And of course it isn't just that the first African American president will be in the White House. That's been covered to the point of redundancy and I'm sick of hearing about it. Not that it isn't a fantastic step in the stupid race relations fight that's been going on for 100s of years now, but really if you're picking somebody based on merit then it doesn't matter. I think that Obama will give this country an image that it has been lacking for at least the past 8 years. He has proven to me that he's smart just in the past three days because he is surrounding himself with brilliant people for his cabinet. People who are smarter than he is, and that's the way you want someone to run the country. He knows he can't do this on his own. He's picking people who have been through this before and who know how to fix some of the problems that this country is facing. It's going to be a very dynamic 4 years. I am really excited to see what happens next.

Now, we come to the really important part: the dress. YOU KNOW WHICH DRESS I'M TALKING ABOUT. No? Well then here's a picture:

Let me make myself very clear: I hate this dress. Michelle Obama has a great figure. She can get away with things that most women can't because of that. HOWEVER, I draw the line here. This dress makes her look lumpy (she is not) and saggy (she is not). The color is distracting and the criss-cross effect at the waist isn't doing her any favors. I understand that she makes her own fashion choices but this is just not... right.
















None of this made sense until I saw the original Narciso Rodriguez dress:

My Friends (hee hee, so much funnier now that we're not hearing it constantly), do you see where it all went wrong? The neckline, the sweater, the proportion, the point at which the color begins and ends, the fit. THIS is what this dress is supposed to look like. And I honestly don't think that it is because the model is a size 00 (her arms are going to snap like a twig if you look at them too long, and she has the ONLY legs that don't get short when you put an -- oh God no one can wear those! -- open-toed bootie on them). It's a matter of proportion and fit.




So I'm really ecstatic that Barack Obama is going to be our president. And I am also looking forward to Michelle's upcoming fashion choices. Because while I don't agree with everything she wears, she is brave and she takes risks. Which is more than I can say for myself.

For more on THE DRESS, here's a New York Times article, and here's a slide show of her style so far.