(The Roberts Family) "An Image a Little too Carefully Coordinated"

[KoKo]

washingtonpost.comAn Image A Little Too Carefully Coordinated

By Robin Givhan
Post
Friday, July 22, 2005; C02

It has been a long time since so much syrupy nostalgia has been in evidence at the White House. But Tuesday night, when President Bush announced his choice for the next associate justice of the Supreme Court, it was hard not to marvel at the 1950s-style tableau vivant that was John Roberts and his family.

There they were -- John, Jane, Josie and Jack -- standing with the president and before the entire country. The nominee was in a sober suit with the expected white shirt and red tie. His wife and children stood before the cameras, groomed and glossy in pastel hues -- like a trio of Easter eggs, a handful of Jelly Bellies, three little Necco wafers. There was tow-headed Jack -- having freed himself from the controlling grip of his mother -- enjoying a moment in the spotlight dressed in a seersucker suit with short pants and saddle shoes. His sister, Josie, was half-hidden behind her mother's skirt. Her blond pageboy glistened. And she was wearing a yellow dress with a crisp white collar, lace-trimmed anklets and black patent-leather Mary Janes.

-snip-

The wife wore a strawberry-pink tweed suit with taupe pumps and pearls, which alone would not have been particularly remarkable, but alongside the nostalgic costuming of the children, the overall effect was of self-consciously crafted perfection. The children, of course, are innocents. They are dressed by their parents. And through their clothes choices, the parents have created the kind of honeyed faultlessness that jams mailboxes every December when personalized Christmas cards arrive bringing greetings "to you and yours" from the Blake family or the Joneses. Everyone looks freshly scrubbed and adorable, just like they have stepped from a Currier & Ives landscape.

-snip-

Separate the child from the clothes, which do not acknowledge trends, popular culture or the passing of time. They are not classic; they are old-fashioned. These clothes are Old World, old money and a cut above the light-up/shoe-buying hoi polloi.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/21/AR2005072102347_pf.html

[Bill McBlueState]

1. flip-flops

Flip-flops, modeled after shoes meant to be worn into a public shower or on the beach, have no business anywhere in the vicinity of the president and his place of residence.

Is anyone else laughing at that one?

:spray:

[kskiska]

4. Reagan's funeral

I remember how it was pointed out by the media that the "mourners" who passed by his casket were attired in shorts and flip-flops.

[HockeyMom]

2. Right. Time warp from "Camelot", OR

a scene out of the Stepford Wives.

[BuelahWitch]

5. I saw it as definitely Kennedyesqe

All that was missing was a pill box hat on wifey.

[barb162]

7. also missing were gloves

(Jackie almost always wore gloves)

[TahitiNut]

3. Adopting the Lebensborn ... like furniture for a fascist family.

:puke:

[barb162]

8. see the far lower left drawing...does that look like Clinton

when he was young or what?

[Skittles]

6. Stepford Family

it didn't seem right; it looked off