Short(s) and to the point

As I awoke this morning and turned on the television, I was so (not) proud to be a journalist when NBC's "Today" show broadcast a story about Michelle Obama's shorts. Not just that our first lady wore a pair, but asking the hard-hitting question: "Was it appropriate attire for the wife of a president?" Apparently, Mrs. Obama caused a bit of a stir when she recently de-planed from Air Force One wearing -- gasp! -- shorts! True, she's an active, fit, 40-something woman who was on vacation with her family at the Grand Canyon; but how dare she, really! Our country is used to its first ladies wearing shin-length dresses or ball gowns, not everywoman shorts. For goodness sakes, it's not like Michelle was wearing Daisy Dukes: they were mid-thigh jean shorts. The story, and the accompanying piece at TODAYShow.com, didn't actually name names of the people who were offended by the shorts, so this is one of those stories that is more about eliciting a reaction than reacting to a real issue. However, Today's Web site did run a poll asking whether people thought Mrs. Obama's fashion choice was "fine" or "inappropriate." As of the writing of my post, 83 percent of the nearly 203,000 votes cast chose the first option, which also used the words "People are overreacting!" What struck me is that 17 percent of respondents -- or nearly 35,000 people -- agreed that "the first lady should be dressed more conservatively." My guess is that they really were voting for the option: "The first lady and her husband should be more conservative, politically," though who's to know for sure? I like that we have relatively young, hip people in the White House. They dress up when it's appropriate, but they also dress down like 40-somethings with two kids do all around this country. Next week on "Today": President Obama spotted wearing sandals. Is impeachment next? (photo courtesy of collabratude's Photostream at http://www.flickr.com/people/flarestream/)