The good old days of Fashiongate suited us fine

Join me on a brief traipse down memory lane – three years ago today, on the eve of the ’14 Labor Day weekend – so that we may revisit what was viewed back then as a presidential scandal.

Barack Obama wore a tan suit.

Granted, Obama was never the target of a wide-ranging criminal investigation, two grand juries, and multiple congressional probes; he never campaigned for president while trying to feather his family nest; he never tweeted threats of nuclear annihilation; he never lauded neo-Nazis as “very fine people”; and his own voters never said in a focus group that “we know he’s a nut” – but, come on, folks, he wore a tan suit. And oh did heads explode.

A Fox News blondette aired a video of Obama’s summer fashion statement and exclaimed, “There’s the president. Can you guess what has people talking? It’s that suit!”

A different blondette said, “I looked twice to make sure he wasn’t a circus ringmaster.”

Steve Doocey on Fox News lamented, “One of the ugliest suits in the history of America.”

Lou Dobbs on Fox News huffed, “I think it’s shocking to a lot of people.”

Another Fox pundit said, “Whoever talked him into wearing a tan suit? They’re so desperate because of low poll numbers.”

A Fox roundtable said, “I think it’s a sign to enemies that he’s a wimp.”

Another Fox guy said, “Only liberals could ever elect a guy with a tan suit.”

Republican Congressman Peter King said on right-wing NewsMaxTV, “There’s no way we can excuse what trhe president did…When you have the world watching, it did not show the seriousness of purpose that you need from a commander-in-chief.”

And the scandal broke the Internet, with tweets like “Me no likey, skin-colored suits don’t scream POWERFUL” and “Obama sends the wrong message to our allies.”

Who knows, maybe the real problem wasn’t the color of the garb, but the color of the man who wore it. Whatever. It’s just instructive to harken back to Fashiongate, three years to the day, and discover a nation so comparatively becalmed that a tan suit could roil a sizable slice of the populace.

Truly, those were the days. If only America could be made that great again.

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Meanwhile, Obama’s successor had a fine time down in Texas, touring none of the Harvey devastation and commiserating in person with zero Harvey victims. Nevertheless, he insisted that he had experienced the damage “first-hand.”

Yesterday, propaganda minister Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked for evidence that Trump had indeed seen the damage “first-hand.” Here’s what she said:

“He met with a number of state and local officials who are eating, sleeping, breathing the Harvey disaster. He talked extensively with the governor, who certainly is right in the very midst of every bit this, as well as the mayors from several of the local towns that were hit hardest. And detailed information throughout the day yesterday talking to a lot of the people on the ground. That certainly is a first-hand account.”

Actually, that the textbook definition of a second-hand account.

Butwhatabout Obama? His suit was tan!

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