Ann Romney’s Pinterest Is Better than Michelle Obama’s Pinterest
Michelle Obama joined Pinterest today. Ann Romney has been dominating that ish for months.
Like, way better.
But that's not Michelle's fault.
For one thing, it's still early in the game. Mobama just joined Pinterest this morning (though she already has 7940 followers to Ann's 7527), and she might take some time to get her pins together. That being said, it's not that freaking hard to throw a couple pins up on your board, and her account is being run by the Obama 2012 campaign staff. (She does provide some of her own captions; those are signed "-mo.")
Was there really not an intern with an hour to kill today, whose help they could have enlisted in finding a couple pictures of American flag desserts or "tablescapes" or pictures (yes, pictures of American flag pictures; for more pictures of American flag pictures, see Ann Romney's Pinterest, your #1 source for pictures of American flag pictures)?
The few pins Michelle Obama does have (16 total) are family and press photos divided among three boards: "Around the White House," "Great Memories," and "Father's Day."
Family photos sound great (press ones less-so), and they are — the problem is, these ones have all been well-circulated already.
The Pinterest beast demands fresh meat. Previously unpublished family photos. A super high contrast Hipstamatic of Michelle Obama's hands making a heart on the carpet of the White House Blue Room. Basically, anything that might be featured on the show-stoppingly great official Beyoncé Tumblr (chocolate covered cherries – the thought never even occurred to me).
Ann Romney's page, by contrast, is the most Pinteresting thing (which is very different from the most interesting thing) you've ever seen.
She's got recipes for meals and snacks that look uniformly disgusting. She's got a "patriotic" inspiration board, boasting a shot of a whimsical American bike. She's even got a "Crafts/DIY" section, where she pins things like this fantastic egg dyeing idea ("Smart idea!" says Ann—and it is) and then also a family photo section where she posts private pictures of herself blatantly disregarding those very same craft/DIY ideas.
Finding inspiration, imposing it on friends and strangers, and then completely ignoring that "inspiration" in favor of whatever you would normally do. That's what Pinterest is.
And Ann Romney gets it.
But Michelle's pinpage is not completely devoid of entertainment. A fun activity is to read through the user comments on each shot she posts and try to find the one that is the most breezily self-serving. Here's my favorite, from a commenter named Maureen, left on this promotional still of Michelle playing tug-of-war with Jimmy Fallon in the Diplomatic Reception Room:
"This is great...Plus, I love the Zuber wall paper. I use to have it in my CT home. It's lovely to see it back in the White House!"
Well-played, Maureen.
Though everyone's making a big deal about hers, Michelle's not the only Obama with a Pinterest page. Barack has one too, though his makes no bones about being 100% maintained by staff from the Obama 2012 campaign. (Thank God. The last thing Barack Obama needs to be doing is losing hours of his life on Pinterest, endlessly comparing his boards to Ann Romney's and wondering how he stacks up.)
The main issue with Barack's page is that the people who take care of it are playing fast and loose with the definition of "recipe" on the "Obama-inspired recipes" board. There's a difference between posting an image of a store-bought sheet cake and posting a recipe for a store-bought sheet cake. Hopefully Michelle's Pinterest handlers won't lead her down that dark and dusty road.
When you come right down to it, the whole endeavor is probably just not Michelle Obama's forte. She seems like more of a dancer, a doer, a get-up-and-let's-mover than an online patriotic inspiration board curator.
