FASHION Magazine

In what must be a first, an invitation to dine with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour is being viewed as inappropriate. The sponsored-by-Obama video invitation, which was released last Friday, shows Wintour in a Thakoon-designed Runway to Win scarf as she encourages Barack Obama supporters to enter for a chance to win seats at a Sarah Jessica Parker–hosted dinner, which Michelle Obama and Wintour will also be hosting.

So, what’s inappropriate about that? A report released on the same day as Wintour’s video detailed the dismal numbers of unemployed Americans. Unsurprisingly, the Republican Party was the first to point out the unfortunate timing, lampooning the Wintour video in a video called “Meanwhile.” As Wintour’s video plays in one corner of the screen, unemployment numbers before and after Obama’s presidency flash under the title “Meanwhile…” in the opposite corner.

“There couldn’t be a better demonstration of this president’s misplaced priorities than a glitzy fundraising video release on the same day that marked more unemployed Americans,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. “It’s more than obvious that this president just doesn’t get it.”

While it’s true that the Obama campaign’s timing wasn’t spot-on in this case, will this really affect voters’ confidence in their current president? It’s important to note that both the Democratic and Republican parties have their own sets of supporters, and both organize celebrity-run dinners to bring out voters. Mitt Romney’s campaign has been promoting the “Dine With the Donald” dinner, which gives supporters a chance to rub shoulders with the business tycoon. Before the Wintour-Parker-Obama trifecta, Democratic Party supporters had come together under George Clooney’s roof as the long-time Obama supporter hosted a campaign dinner.

Does the release date of Wintour’s video show that the president is out of touch with the average American, or is the Republican Party simply using this as a convenient opportunity to take a jab at their political opponent?

Word: Anodyne

Meaning: Inoffensive, deliberately bland (adj.); pain or distress-easing medication (n.)

Usage: “I see the awful hands of faith, the credulous and worn hands of believers; the humble and beseeching hands of the millions and millions who have only the anodyne of credulity.” — Katherine Anne Porter, a Depression-era writer

Word: Mensch

Meaning: A person of strength and honour and other admirable characteristics, taken from the Yiddish word for human, which in turn is taken from an old German word for man or person.

Usage: “He asked me… when was the last time I manned-up. The last time I was a mensch. I love that word. Because it’s not really manning-up. A girl can be a mensch too.” — Bruce LaBruce, in conversation with James Franco, in the new issue of Bad Day magazine.

Word: Obscurant

Meaning: As an adjective, it can mean a few things, including simply something (like smoke, or clouds) that obscures something else. As a noun, more importantly, it means an opposer of intellectual progress, political reform and/or enlightenment.

Usage: “The essential element in the black art of obscurantism is not that it wants to darken individual understanding, but that it wants to blacken our picture of the world, and darken our idea of existence.” — Friedrich Nietzsche