PRESIDENTIAL STYLE. To make a quick point on Jeff Greenfield's bizarre riff suggesting that Barack Obama's sartorial sense recalls Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Greenfield's not only making a dumb comparison, he's reaching for it. The Ahmadinejad looks is not, as Greenfield seems to think, "a jacket, a collared shirt, but no tie." It's a tan jacket and no tie. Indeed, when Time magazine sat down with the Iranian firebrand, they observed, "[h]e is wearing blue-gray trousers, black loafers and the trademark tan jacket that even he calls his "Ahmadinejad jacket." Hear that? "Trademark tan jacket." Ahmadinejad doesn't have patent on business casual, what he's known for is a specific item. Which is why when Spackerman decided to dress up as Ahmadinejad, he faithfully followed the templete, as you can see here. Obama, dressed in a black jacket and a crisp white shirt, did not. So not only is Greenfield's comparison grotesque, unfair, and oddly weak -- what sort of superpower starts demanding ties because some two bit foreign leader eschews neckwear? -- it's also wrong. Ahmadinajad does have sweet style. But Barack wasn't biting it. --Ezra Klein
