Oof. The timing was unfortunate. Only days after watching her husband, the 81-year-old Joe Biden, all but dribble through the first presidential debate at CNN’s Atlanta studio, Dr Jill Biden popped up in the August issue of US Vogue. The cover finds her strong, beatific, bathed in Anna Wintour’s benedictory glow. The cover line is a doozy: “We will decide our future.” Wait. Who will?
It has become a near rite of passage for First Ladies to sit for Vogue cover portraits. With the notable exception of Melania Trump, who was controversially never extended the privilege, most First Ladies get the call. This was Biden’s third appearance. It is, unusually, her second cover during her husband’s first term in office, a sign of Wintour’s enthusiasm for team Biden, for whom she staged a fundraiser in London last month.
The image, shot by Norman Jean Roy, projects a typically Vogue persona: Biden’s hair is tousled to teacher-mom perfection; from her ears hang two orbs in turquoise blue. She wears a Ralph Lauren coat dress in suffrage white that conveys both power but also supplication. She looks presidential. Poised. Even so, following her husband’s catastrophic performance, one can’t help but liken her to some kind of medical assistant — “the woman in a white coat” — or worse, the benign manager of a luxury healthcare residence.