Barack Obama tan suit controversy

On August 28, 2014, President Barack Obama held a press conference about the situation regarding ISIS in Syria, and how the U.S. military was planning to respond to it. At the conference, Obama said that the U.S. had yet to develop a plan regarding the removal of ISIS, and talked extensively about his concerns in the region. During the conference he wore a tan suit, which until that point was uncommon for Obama. The light-colored suit was seen by conservative commentator and Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs as "shocking to a lot of people". The suit received mixed reviews from a sartorial perspective. At the time, the unusual attention given to a male leader's fashion choices was contrasted with that of his 2008 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton's "regular experience" as a woman in politics. == Immediate response ==

U.S. representative Peter King, a member of the Republican Party, deemed the suit's color combined with the subject matter of terrorism to be "unpresidential". He went on: "There's no way, I don't think, any of us can excuse what the president did yesterday. I mean, you have the world watching". The latter phrase, a parody of Obama's book The Audacity of Hope, was recycled from media coverage of a 2010 Oval Office redecoration by Michael S. Smith which featured a prominent taupe rug and furnishings in similar muted colors, playfully criticized by Arianna Huffington among others. Fashion journalist for the New York Times Vanessa Friedman noted that the choice of tan was a "particularly odd choice" when discussing "wishy-washy military policy" in Syria. Fashion designer Joseph Abboud, who had previously made suits for Obama, praised Obama for the decision, saying that "You don't want to look the same every day of your life. It's boring as hell". Multiple news outlets noted that other U.S. presidents had also worn tan suits, including Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Still others said that the tan suit commentary was overshadowing the greater implications of the conference, and of the U.S. strategy for combating ISIS. == Legacy ==

The controversy has been cited as an example of outsized attention given to a relatively insignificant detail, and as a symbol of the relatively unencumbered news cycle at the time. During the week of Obama's 60th birthday in August 2021, and near the seventh anniversary of Obama's tan suit incident, President Joe Biden wore a tan suit for a press conference, which was widely reported as a jab at the initial controversy. On September 7, 2022, at an event honoring Obama's official portraits unveiled at the White House, Obama joked about the tan suit incident. On August 19, 2024, the first day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Vice President and party nominee Kamala Harris made an appearance sporting a tan suit, which was also reported as a jab at the controversy. On August 28, 2024 (on the 10th anniversary of the incident), Obama tweeted a side by side picture reference of himself and Harris in tan suits tweeting "How it started. How it's going. Ten years later, and it's still a good look! #IWillVote.com". ==See also==