This is how the President of the United States like it when the pressure is on: Cherry-red, with thin silvery-white diagonal stripes. He wore this tie last night. (See it here.) But that’s not all. Gabriel Winant, an eagle-eyed blogger at Salon, lays out the pattern.
Well, there’s last night. Then there’s the president’s quasi-State of the Union speech. (He was standing in the House of Representatives chamber, with Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi behind him. It counts.) That’s not all, though. He wore this tie for his victory speech in Grant Park on the night of the election. That was a big one. He had it on when he delivered his “closing argument” speech in Canton, Ohio on October 27, 2008, and for the third debate with John McCain. And the clincher? This was his tie for the Democratic National Convention — arguably the biggest speech of his life.
First off, Winant is off about the Grant Park tie. Look closely, and you can see that the stripes are different. But the other ties all look alike. So what’s going on. Is the president superstitious, like Jeb Bartlett on the fictional West Wing? The Bartlett who says “there’s a lot of juice in that tie”?
The truth is a bit less tantalizing than we all might hope.
According to a well-placed source in the White House, “They look similar but the one last night is actually new according to folks.” So there is little hope for memorabilia collectors who want a crunch tie auction at Sotheby’s. But at least we know the man is not afraid of repeating a fashion statement.