Head Coverings In The News

(Above: PSP-on-Wonkette flashback to 10-26-07)

Here's a theme I haven't touched on for a while: everybody agrees that writing about political figures' clothing and hairdos is shallow, and yet these topics are amongst the most treacherous to navigate, and politicians ignore them at their own peril. These things "don't matter," and yet they are written about –passionately!– all the time! Hey, tell it to John Edwards, OK? Ah, but these things do matter to a lot of people. Make one wrong sartorial move and BLAM! Trouble.

And that brings us to the latest story in this saga: Obama may not visit some place in India because in order to do so, he might have to slap a scarf on his head. This is a big deal (Google News Search for "Obama Head Covering" brings back 134 news articles)! This will require meetings and negotiations and delicate diplomatic maneuvering and whatnot and at first blush seems so silly but, like I said, put the wrong thing on your head and you're in for a world of hurt.

And can you imagine? Imagine if Obama didn't put much thought into it and chose the wrong thing to place on his head! The US Chamber of Commerce would probably blow that picture up and rent the Times Square Jumbotron for a month to show it; Fox News would put it in the corner of their screen until November, 2012; Pam Geller would, you know, have twenty aneurysms. Enough digital ink would be spilled over this to make the Gulf oil spill seem like a bathtub full of Valvoline.

Head coverings! Gosh! Scarves in the news! Again!