Dressing for the Electoral College

I nominate Rudy Giuliani as the best dressed Presidential candidate from a weak field of Republicans. The man must be in ball rooms nightly, and I can respect that. Here he is in a shawl collared jacket with a bow tie that was knotted by hand and shirt sleeves that appear to be the correct length. If only his shirt collar was a bit higher in back.

Unfortunately for Mr. Giuliani, he is running against quality competition in a Democratic year. Joe Biden's shirt collar shows a proper half inch at the back of his neck, and the rest of his dress is equally put together. I wish he didn't wear dress shirts with breast pockets, but I can live with that. He gets my vote as the best-dressed candidate.

Next week we'll take the competition up a level and compare the dress of the leaders of the West when they meet for the 33rd time as the Group of Eight (G8), the international forum for the governments of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, in Heiligendamm, Germany. Thank you to Karl89 for the suggestion.

Republican Presidential Pretenders

I've looked at a lot of photographs and it's my opinion that Republican candidates have a more uniform look than their opposition across the aisle. Black oxfords, blue suits with the sleeves cut too long to show shirt cuff, white shirts, red or blue ties and flag lapel pins appear to constitute the uniform of the Presidential candidate in 2008. And that's too bad because we've had some Republican Presidents these past fifty years who could teach these guys a thing or two. For example, here's Ronald Reagan wearing white tie a lot more elegantly than President Bush did recently.

I give Rudy Giuliani props for seeming more comfortable in black tie than the other candidates. At least, he's photographed in it more often, and in those photos he's put together reasonably well. But his day to day look is the same old same old. At least add a white pocket square!



Fred Dalton Thompson cuts a Presidential figure, but the clothes don't demonstrate much leadership. His sleeves need shortening and there's no pocket handkerchief.

Then there is Mitt Romney who, as a former governor of Massachusetts, has apparently been influenced to adopt John Kerry's style of dress. He spices up his otherwise boring look with Vineyard Vines style neckties and could take it up another notch with a touch of white at his breast pocket.

Finally, consider John McCain, another man we can respect for his accomplishments if not his dress. In this photo, the jacket body and sleeves are too long, the necktie is tied too long and the shirt collar does not stand high enough above his jacket.

Overall, the Republican Presidential candidates dress is undistinguished. We'll see how the Democrats fare in the next installment of this series.