The fashion face-off happens tomorrow! Oh yeah, and Pres. Obama's doing a town hall in France.

[Barack_America]

Town hall, French-style

Posted by Foon Rhee, deputy national political editor April 2, 2009 05:26 PM

How will a Barack Obama town hall come off in France?

We'll find out Friday, as the new president holds a town hall meeting at Rhenus Sports Arena in Strasbourg with students and local residents. The town hall, even of the online variety, has been the favored forum for Obama during the campaign and since he took office to sell himself and his agenda.

The town hall, announced by the White House this afternoon, is part of a busy schedule on Friday, which also includes a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Palais Rohan, a quick jaunt across the border to Baden-Baden, Germany, where Obama will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Rathaus.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will also attend a NATO concert. And in an appointment that will be closely watched by fashion mavens, Michelle Obama wil do lunch with her French counterpart, former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2009/04/town_hall_frenc.html

Bring it, Bruni! Our Mighty Michelle is going to wipe the floor with you! Rawr!

;)

[JayMusgrove]

1. I can live with two First Ladies in the USA and France

both being wonderful fashion plates for their nation. Michelle, after all, is a FRENCH name!!!!!

[Barack_America]

2. No. It is like Highlander. Only one can survive.

;)

[JayMusgrove]

4. One more thought about the venue.

Strassbourg is in the French/German/Swiss border area, where German/Swiss French people live, a few hundred miles from snooty Paris.

It's as if they were going to Minnesota or New Mexico, instead of NYC, if you catch the difference in how people might react to Obama in the border hinterlands.

[Bad Thoughts]

7. It's not the hinterlands

Strasbourg is a European Capital. It is cosmopolitan in a way different from Paris, but encapsulating the best of both France and Germany.

ETA: it's more akin to going to San Francisco.

Btw, Obama is about 5% Alsatian.

[JayMusgrove]

22. Good points! You are right but

San Francisco is not a border town.

Maybe San Diego?

[Bad Thoughts]

23. It was a global capital ...

... a major port, and almost as far from the capital as you could get (at least in the continental US). Not to mention a major junction of intercultural commerce (Asian-Anglo rather than Franco-German).

[cali]

3. I think the town hall meeting will be a big hit in France

and so will Michelle.

[Thrill]

6. I knew about the one in Turkey. Now he's added one in France?

Surprised, with him trying to get over that cold. Maybe they'll give him a. I.V to help get over it.

[pnwmom]

5. I wouldn't mind if she wiped the floor

with that wild sweater she had on yesterday. . .

otherwise, she's been doing great! I'm so happy to have a Presidential couple that we can be proud of.

[BeyondGeography]

8. Obama loves the give-and-take and he has a nose for the political score

Great idea. Ballsy, interesting, potentially risky, but more likely a home run.

[LSparkle]

9. He's meeting Merkel in the RATHAUS? Rat House? HA! n/t

[Bad Thoughts]

10. Rat=Council

Rathaus=town hall

[LSparkle]

13. Je parle un peu de francais, mais pas d'allemagne ... obviously!

[Bad Thoughts]

14. The word is related to rational and ratify

Very democratic words, indeed.

[Fleshdancer]

11. Both women will look beautiful. They always do.

There is no need to pit these two women against each other. I don't see anyone trying to figure out which President will be wearing the better suit, tie, or shoes. No need to do it to their wives.

[Barack_America]

12. .

I meant it as a bit of a joke.

And to needle that guy bitching about the Michelle Obama fashion threads.

[Fleshdancer]

16. ooooh...that makes sense

Sorry to be so touchy about it. I've been overly sensitive about the subject of these two women meeting after reading the craptacular editorial Tina Brown wrote the other day.

[Cha]

25. What stupid thing did

tina brown write about?

[Fleshdancer]

26. She said Carla Bruni looked like a "reformed hooker"...

In order to compliment Michelle, she feels the need to completely bash another first lady for no reason.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8310728&mesg_id=8310728


It was smart of France’s ravishing first lady, Carla Bruni, to let her husband go to the conference without her. The second Madame Sarkozy was a big wow when she visited London last March, but she’s a shrewd enough PR hand to know she would suffer in comparison to the first and only Mrs. Obama. Carla is old news next to Michelle. Sure, she’s more beautiful in the cover-girl sense—looking good is her profession, after all—but an Italian heiress who strums the guitar and made a predatory move on France’s reigning little Napoleon isn’t the best poster girl for the scariest economic downturn since the 1930s. The Brits went off Carla almost as soon as she was back in Paris. That fake-demure little Dior suit she wore to lunch with Queen Elizabeth seemed in retrospect like the kind of get-up a reformed hooker might wear to meet her latest CEO for lunch at the Savoy.


:eyes:

[Barack_America]

27. Ah yes, I did read that...well, until the "hooker" bit.

Which was so uncalled for that I didn't read on.

[Cha]

29. This is claptrap coming from tina brown.

I read an indepth article on Carla when she was on the front of Vanity Fair a few issues ago and she's quite talented and so what it's not their first marriage.

As you say..there's no reason to tear down someone to build up another person. They're not competing and I'm sure Michelle Obama wouldn't approve of this catty meaness coming from tina brown.

[4lbs]

30. Evidently, Tina Brown thinks this very nice outfit is what a reformed hooker wears...

I see nothing wrong with it.


Both Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni are beautiful, intelligent, accomplished women in their own rights.

[Fleshdancer]

31. gorgeous outfit

She looks so nervous too!

[DURHAM D]

15. If I was in charge of the schedule -

after Baden-Baden I would drive south to the Italian lake district and visit George Clooney at his villa on Lake Cuomo. Its a great place to relax after those boring meetings.

[Bad Thoughts]

17. Actually, he should go to Colmar

Just south of Strasbourg, it's the center of the wine country and the birthplace of Bartholdi, maker of the Statue of Liberty, where many of his works are displayed.

[DURHAM D]

19. Colmar = Boring. George = Fun! n/t

[Arkana]

18. "Monsieur Obama, when will you legalize ze, how you say...

Mary Jane in your country?"

Obama: *facepalm* Christ, not this shit again.

[Fleshdancer]

20. ROFL!

I would pay to see that. :rofl:

[Clio the Leo]

21. MICHELLE! MICHELLE! MICHELLE!!!!

lol, gosh this is fun!!!!

[Cha]

24. "Bring it, Bruni"!

:rofl:

[NYC_SKP]

28. Sacre Bleu!

The capacity of the Rhenus Sports Arena is 6,200 people.

That should be a town hall worth watching!