By Benjamin-Emile Le Hay 9/19/12 4:07pm

First Lady Style Watch

Lady Obama and the girls. Photo Courtesy of AP/WWD.

Is L.A.-Based Designer Barbara Tfank Michelle Obama’s New Designer of Choice?

Word has gotten out from publicists and fashion news authority Women’s Wear Daily that first lady Michelle Obama has endorsed yet another one of Barbara Tfank’s ladylike designs for a heavily monitored public appearance. It is said to be the fifth time that the first lady has donned a Barbara Tfank frock. She wore the ravishing outfit at a meet-and-greet in Gainesville, Fla., for a young girls’ after-school program called Girls’ Place on September 17.

“A friend, who Tfank had shown the unusual fabric to, spotted the dress on C-SPAN and called the designer to tell her the news,” reported WWD.

According to our perhaps inaccurate tally, this means that Ms. Obama has worn Tfank to more public appearances than any other high-end American fashion designer, which leads us to ask: Is Barbara Tfank Ms. Obama’s new designer of choice? Has Ms. Tfank overtaken the feminine and playful aesthetic of Jason Wu? Read More

By Kevin Baker 9/18/12 7:40pm

opinion

Photoillo by Ed Johnson

The Romney Camp’s Reckless Middle East Foreign Policy

“A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”
—Rudyard Kipling

At last, Mitt Romney has told us one specific thing he intends to do as president: get weapons to al-Qaeda.

Trying to salvage a week of self-evisceration on foreign policy from the Republican presidential nominee, his leading foreign policy advisors, Eliot Cohen and Richard Williamson, told The New York Times last Friday just what a President Romney would do differently in the Middle East. Their critique included the insistence that President Obama “engage” the rebels in Syria. According to the Times, they did “[stop] short of saying that the United States should provide lethal arms” but favored “facilitating” the provision of lethal arms from other Arab states.” Read More

By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 9/18/12 3:28pm

Traffic Jams

AUSTRALIA-TRANSPORT-DETROIT-ELECTRIC CAR

Mother Jones Metrics ‘Melted’ After Romney Meltdown

So, just how much traffic did Mother Jones receive to their website after publishing their blockbuster video of Mitt Romney?

“The traffic melted the needle of our live meter,” said Monika Bauerlein, an editor at the liberal magazine, when we reached her this afternoon. “Our metric software just couldn’t keep up.”

“But you know, online publishing metrics are kind of voodoo anyway,” she said.

Ms. Bauerlein noted that the video has gotten 2.4 million views – that they know of. Read More

By Patrick Clark 9/18/12 7:52am

Romney’s Remarks on ’47 Percent’ Made at Private Equity Head’s Home; Studying the Power of Einhorn: Roundup

Footage of Mitt Romney’s remarks about the 47 percent voters who don’t pay taxes or depend on government assistance—”I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives”—was taken in the Florida home of Marc Leder, co-CEO of private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, said David Corn, the reporter who published video clips at Mother Jones. Mr. Leder, a part-owner in the Philadelphia 76ers, is as TPM points out, also known for his bacchanals: “At the Bridgehampton home that Leder rented for a whopping $500,000 a month, guests cavorted nude in a pool and performed sex acts, while scantily clad Russian women danced on platforms,” The New York Post reported last year. Read More

By Steve Huff 9/17/12 10:51pm

Campaign 2012

Screengrabs

Who Is Mother Jones Tipster ‘Anne Onymous?’ [Videos]

Videos recorded in the last month or so apparently caught Mitt Romney speaking perhaps a bit too frankly to a captive group of donors. The covertly-recorded videos, spotlighted by the liberal publication Mother Jones, reveal that the Republican nominee has a more controversial view of a significant percentage of the American electorate than has perhaps been heard from him before.

Mother Jones‘s David Corn didn’t shy away from presenting the videos with a dash of cloak-and-dagger theatrics: Read More

By Foster Kamer 9/13/12 1:06pm

TAX ON TAX ON TAX

george-bush-kanye-west-statement

Mitt Romney’s Tax Rate Enshrined in New Kanye West Song

If there’s one thing all Americans likely understand in some cursory manner about Mitt Romney, beyond the matter of his religion, it’s that something is curious about the way he pays his taxes. Most Americans, for example, don’t have dealings with shell corporations in the Cayman Islands. Also, in the circumstance that they’re asked for their tax returns, most Americans usually don’t have a choice as to whether or not they’re going to produce them. But as of yet, the Republican candidate for the highest office in the land hasn’t exactly seen his tax returns become a matter of interest within pop culture. Until now. Read More