Wimpy David Brooks Cowed by Michelle Obama's Biceps

By Bonnie Fuller, Huffington Post. Posted March 10, 2009.

Have the Republicans reverted to a party with so little to say that they are reduced to making feeble jabs at Michelle Obama's biceps? Are they so afraid of the new Obama era that the First Lady's arms are enough of a symbol of power that they cower before them?

That can be the only explanation for Republican lite David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, to tell his fellow Times columnist Maureen Dowd that Michelle Obama should put away her arms, "Thunder and Lightning." Thunder and lightning? Has he actually named the biceps that offend him?

He went on to complain that Michelle's stunning eggplant sleeveless Narcisco Rodriguez dress, which she wore to Congress, was "ostentatious." And that the First Lady should not be known for one body part.

Brooks also had the nerve to say that "sometimes I think half the reason Obama ran for president is so Michelle would have a platform to show off her biceps."

If that doesn't sound like a sore loser running scared, then I don't know what does.

Let me respond to Mr. Brooks' insulting comments one by one. As a sometime fashionista who has edited the style bibles Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Glamour, I contend that Mrs. Obama's eggplant dress was striking, chic and very modern. It was not ostentatious. Ostentatious would have been a more "Dynasty-type" dress featuring sequins, gold glitz, feathers and enormous shoulders.

As for infamous Presidential body parts. There is a well-established tradition of presidential types being successful and still being strongly identified with signature features: George Washington for his ponytail and wooden teeth, Thomas Jefferson for his red hair, Abraham Lincoln for his height and heavy beard, Franklin D Roosevelt for his polio-crippled legs, Jackie Kennedy for her wide eyes and Ronald Reagan for his thatch of boyish brown hair.

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