Democrat or Republican, people wear funky clothes to conventions [pics]

September 25, 2012 by Daniel Burton

Cover of Mark Twain

Mark Twain is famous for his pithy statements on human nature, commenting on things as varied as anger (“an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured”), hell (“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company”) and even statistics (“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics”). While almost all of these could probably be applied to politics, one of my favorite Twain quotes is on clothing.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

It’s hard to argue with that (though Madonna has certainly threatened to test that theory if President Obama wins a second term…no, seriously. The pop singer, after calling Obama a “black Muslim” on stage in D.C. said that her audience should vote for him and that if he wins she’ll strip. Heaven help us all).

Meanwhile, the delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions were testing the very limits to which wearing cloths can influence society. While at the Republican National Convention in Tampa with KSL News Radio at the end of last month, I noticed that some of the more enthusiastic delegates had gone above and beyond in their passion. Summer Mull, my counterpart at the Democratic National Convention noticed the same.

By and in large, the most popular fashion meme at both conventions seemed to be Old Glory, followed shortly thereafter by Obama (well, at least at one of the conventions…).

The pictures below were taken by her, myself, and my Better Half during the conventions. Let’s see if you can guess which convention they were taken at.

(Click on any of the pictures to blow them up and scroll through the gallery)

And that would be me, rockin’ the bow tie, while I interview a Maine delegate and Ron Paul supporter about why he’s part of the walk-out during the convention.