Free Republic

So, Jennifer Epstein wites a breathless puff piece about a breathless puff piece written by Jodi Kanter about the magnificent Michelle and the God like Obamas. New York Times "reporter" gets 7 figure advance to write this drivel, after one interview with the Obamas, to come out just in time for the election season.

*snip* “She feels as if our rudder isn’t set right,” Mr. Obama confided, according to aides. Rahm Emanuel, then chief of staff, repeated the first lady’s criticisms to colleagues with indignation, according to three of them. Mr. Emanuel, in a brief interview, denied that he had grown frustrated with Mrs. Obama, but other advisers described a grim situation: a president whose agenda had hit the rocks, a first lady who disapproved of the turn the White House had taken, and a chief of staff who chafed against her influence.

Michelle Obama was privately fuming, not only at the president’s team, but also at her husband. In the days after the Democrats lost Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat in January 2010, Barack Obama was even-keeled as usual in meetings, refusing to dwell on the failure or lash out at his staff. The first lady, however, could not fathom how the White House had allowed the crucial seat, needed to help pass the president’s health care legislation and the rest of his agenda, to slip away, several current and former aides said.

New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor, in a book to be published Tuesday, portrays a White House where tensions developed between Mrs. Obama and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and former press secretary and presidential adviser Robert Gibbs. Among the book's most provocative anecdotes, Kantor recounts a scene in which Gibbs, frustrated after tamping down a potential public relations crisis involving the first lady, exploded when presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett told him the first lady had concerns about the White House response to the flap. The initial commotion had been over an alleged remark by Michelle Obama...

Carla Bruni showed her chic baby bump off to the world this weekend as she took a stroll in the gardens of the Elysee Palace in Paris. One little girl seemed transfixed by the French First Lady's bump, which she'd covered in a stylish black dress and winter coat. Carla, who is due to give birth in October, greeted crowds on her walk at the palace, which was part of France's Day of Patrimony, when all its private state buildings open to the public. The new baby, Nicholas Sarkozy's fourth and Carla's second, will be the first born to a...

The editors of The Fashion Time Magazine present this week’s glamour girls, the most couture-pleasing, stylishly appealing, best dressed celebs that garnered our attention. We rarely spot Lucy Liu on the red carpet, but when she makes an impact, it’s impossible not to notice her. The Cashmere Mafia star opted for a fantastic ivory ruffled gown by Giamabattista Valli for the “Incognito Design” Exhibition Opening at the Whitney Museum in New York. The actress complemented her outfit with gold Christian Louboutin pumps.

<p>Never mind that there was a French military band playing in the background, for a moment the D-Day images that the cameras were capturing in Caen became surreally interchangeable with shots from a catwalk show.</p> <p>Two tall women, one of them a model, were swinging in step in classic “paired” runway formation. Both were almost identically dressed in knee-length cream with belts, bare legs and heels. They could almost have been modelling some designers’ collection named “First Lady Spring 2009”. Undoubtedly the choice of colour worn by Mrs Obama and Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy was a coincidence. Hell would surely freeze before two such self-confident dressers would confer over what to wear.</p>

Ever since Michelle Obama departed for Europe with her husband, taking along a wardrobe of designer clothes and revealing a new hairdo, her meeting with Carla Sarkozy, the wife of the French president, had been anticipated as a fashion face-off between two stylish first ladies. Their meeting on Friday, at the Palais Rohan in Strasbourg, France, was not quite that. Indeed, Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Sarkozy looked remarkably similar, suggesting that both women know fashion — and themselves — pretty well. Each wore a coat with a soft bow at the neck and low-heeled shoes."snip" Considering that both women have...

Carla Bruni has likened herself to Jackie Kennedy Onassis, another First Lady who achieved style icon status The former model and wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy said she welcomed comparisons to the woman who brought glamour to the White House alongside her husband, John F Kennedy. "She was so young and modern, and of course unconsciously I would project myself more like Jackie Kennedy than Madame de Gaulle, who would be much more like the classical French woman behind her husband," Bruni said. "There is a great photograph of Madame de Gaulle serving soup to her husband. I do...