She's Not the First Bimbo

I'm bothered by all of the attention paid to Mrs. Obama's wardrobe, and the comparisons with Mrs. Sarkozy, as a sideline to President Obama's negotiations with G20 in Europe.

Mrs. Sarkozy is a former model, and since her marriage to the French president has continued in her career as a pop singer, so for her perhaps it's appropriate to focus on appearance. Mrs. Obama, on the other hand, is a Princeton- and Harvard-educated attorney who has been a dean of the University of Chicago as well as vice president for community relations at that university's teaching hospital..

Since President Obama was inaugurated, Mrs. Obama has reached out to military families, visited schools, and spoken about the importance of healthy food, among other initiatives that suggest she will use the potentially powerful platform of the president's wife to reach out to people across socioeconomic and political spectrums and build community.