La Belle Vie: Bachmann underwhelms in pearls

Let’s start with the suit. There is def­i­nitely some­thing to be said for choos­ing a color that flat­ters you and Michele’s face cer­tainly did look ra­di­ant against the cream sheen of her jacket.

But re­ally, cream? Was she try­ing to por­tray her­self as an angel amongst the brutish male can­di­dates? Putting aside the color choice, the out­fit was pretty good for a po­lit­i­cal get-to­gether. The knee-length skirt was de­mure and ap­pro­pri­ate; the bracelet sleeves of the jacket added a del­i­cate fem­i­nine soft­ness and I can’t be en­thu­si­as­tic enough about the beau­ti­ful neck­line. It was just such a shame she chose to fill that gor­geous neck­line with a dis­tinctly av­er­age string of pearls.

Don’t get me wrong, I love pearls as much as the next girl; I often sport them my­self. I also ac­cept that they seem to have be­come her sig­na­ture ac­ces­sory over the course of the cam­paign. But that neck­line was a God-given op­por­tu­nity to show some flair.

Dean Har­ris 18K yel­low gold link–and–white quartz neck­lace with nat­ural green tour­ma­line http://​www.​vogue.​com/​guides/​feeling-fine-vogues-guide-to-exceptional-jewelry/​

I was look­ing for a strik­ing ar­chi­tec­tural piece, like this beau­ti­ful Dean Har­ris cre­ation, which would have al­lowed her to add a lit­tle per­son­al­ity to the out­fit. It is in these touches that she can take the chance to stand out and be no­ticed. Just look at Her­man Cain; I may not re­mem­ber any­thing he said on Tues­day night that wasn’t “9-9-9,” but I sure as heck won’t be for­get­ting that gold tie any time soon.

Al­though I was dis­ap­pointed that we didn’t get to see Michele’s sig­na­ture blow dried tresses, I must admit her soft chignon was ef­fort­lessly el­e­gant and en­sured her face wasn’t ob­scured for the cam­eras. Her make-up was chic and qui­etly un­der­stated, but the French man­i­cure? Maybe it’s the Eng­lish in me, but I thought it was a step too far. A well-groomed fe­male pres­i­dent – yes please. A fe­male pres­i­dent who spends every Sat­ur­day morn­ing in a nail salon – not so much.

Over­all ver­dict? Could do bet­ter. In fact, she has done a lot bet­ter. I was blown away by the beau­ti­ful fresh­ness of the yel­low pat­terned dress she wore back in July to visit Maquoketa – a truly in­spired choice. She didn’t look a day over 35, let alone a mother of five. Let’s have more of that and fewer dull skirt suits. If she al­lows us to see more of her per­son­al­ity, we might just start be­liev­ing in her.