Sunday in the Store with Michelle

Found this via Sam Roggeveen at the Interpreter. (For those unfamiliar with the Interpreter, this farewell post by the Lowy Institute’s outgoing executive director is a fine introduction.)

For whatever it’s worth, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been making noise about allowing French department stores to open on Sundays for a few years now. He just used Michelle Obama’s experience because he figured she’d make for a good marketing ploy. But he didn’t really think it through, because a great part of the Obama’s appeal is their down-to-earth image. Here, Sarkozy calls some of his VIP pals to get them to open their stores for a personal, royal visit, tarnishing the Obama ladies with his own bling bling image. The piece doesn’t mention the stores in question, but I’m assuming we’re not talking about a couple boutiques, but rather high-end department stores.

My guess is a backlash, more widespread than the response of the Communist Party, which at this point is politically irrelevant even among the far-left fringe.

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