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Mike,
I didn't see evidence of misogyny (theivery perhaps, though forgivable given the context), but I tend to go easier on Obama these days, thanks to the out and out snarkfest that is the presidential campaign thus far. But to stay more or less on topic, I'd guess that few members of this forum (those left following posts) would argue that in general terms the judging of art competitions is all too frequently inexplicable. I'm reminded of the perhaps apocryphal story about the design competition years ago for the Sydney Opera House. Among the four judges was Eero Saarinen, who couldn't find time until the last minute to travel to Australia and look over the hundreds of entries. Flipping quickly through the stack of renderings, he stopped at what would be the winner and declared, "this is the one." The other three judges didn't find it in themselves to question the choice. Few of us would criticize the ultimate result, but it turned out that as originally designed the building lacked dressing rooms and other amenities necessary for theatrical productions, and from an engineering standpoint would not have stood up.
Perhaps it should have been called a portrait contest for the Sydney Opera House.
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