Obama Busted by Police...

...the Fashion Police, that is! Welcome to the first, and perhaps the only edition of Mr. Fashion Policeman! I say that, because as a fashionista, I am not one. If you look in the dictionary under "styling", my picture will not be there. In fact, my sense of style is so gawdawful, that for me to even notice an infraction committed by anyone else, it must be terribly egregious.

Which brings us to Barack Obama's "bomber jacket".


Now I have owned a few bomber jackets, wore a bomber style jacket while on a brief stint with a security firm, and a couple of things are characteristic of bomber jackets: they typically have knit cuffs and a knit waistband. Anyone care to venture a guess at where Mr. Obama's waist is in that picture? Try as I might, I couldn't find a single definition of bomber jacket that mentioned a "crotch band"!

Consider some past presidents and their bomber jackets...




Note that the waistband of the jacket ends right about the top of his pants pocket, in an area we typically call "the waist". Now Bush 41 and 43 were both pilots, and not unfamiliar with the concept (of bomber jackets), but even Bill Clinton, who famously said that he "loathed the military" at least knew how to wear the costume!

Now I won't bore you with the rest...I could post numerous pictures of celebrities in bomber jackets, pictures in commercial ads for bomber jackets and even pictures of Obama hiking up his jacket to get his hand in his pocket, but don't you think the most powerful man in the world could come in off the golf course* long enough to have a jacket properly fitted? This one looks like something Michelle picked off the rack at Target. The clearance rack.

You probably thought I was going to bust on the president for wearing a military style jacket when the only times he gets close to the military is for a photo op or to slice their budget. Not at all! The Presidential bomber jacket is a tradition that goes back at least as far as JFK. Over the left breast is embroidered "Commander in Chief" and the president's name. (For Joe Biden they made one with this stitched upside down, so he could glance down and remember his name as needed!)

As C-in-C, Obama has every right to wear the jacket. As a Posse comitatus member of the fashion police, it is my right to tell him: he's doing it wrong.




* #180 this weekend. 23 this year alone, at 27 weeks.


Update: I didn't notice this at first, but JFK, Bush 41, 43 and Clinton all had fur collars on their flight jackets. PETA whipped, anyone??

Update II: This is a little closer to what it should look like (although, I'd take it in at the shoulders as well)



Cross posted at LCR, Political Clown Parade


(Editor's note: The picture of George H. W. Bush was reversed in the original posting. That has been corrected.)