Palin's a hockey mom?
There have been any number of stories recently about the fact that more than $150,000 have been spent on Palin's wardrobe. More interestingly, the highest paid person in the McCain campaign over the first two weeks of October was Palin's makeup artist, who received $22,800 for the first two weeks of October.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2008/10/24/palin_makeup/index.html
Now millions of Americans, including loyal reader and commenter Larry in California are particularly fond of the idea that Obama is an elitist while Palin and (7-house) McCain are ordinary "real" Americans. Now ordinary Americans don't spend $22,800 in 2 weeks on makeup artists. Trust me.
Having said that, apparently some big Republican donors were very unhappy to find out about the enormous clothing expenses. Now if I were a big Republican donor (a truly unlikely state of affairs, believe you me!) there are a million things that would piss me off about Palin. That she's nowhere near smart enough to run for major office, that she's incurious, that she lies all the time, that she divides Americans, that she's killing the McCain campaign. I could go on. But her clothing bill? Nope, that wouldn't upset me one tiny little bit. Sure, its hypocritical, given that she's running as a hockey mom. But a big part of her appeal is her ability to connect, and looking good/looking the part is a part of that, perhaps even more than usual because she's a woman (and attractive at that). She hasn't been in major office long enough to amass an awesome wardrobe, like say Hillary). She needs the kind of clothes that look good and can stand up to the rigors of campaigning.
This is a phony story, except insofar as it reveals the blatant hypocrisy of the entire GOP effort these days. We're for Joe the Plumber, but mysteriously, our plan has ginormous tax cuts for the very wealthy and for big corporations (which are owned primarily by the upper middle class, wealthy and very wealthy).
It does seem like a ton of money, and sure she's hypocritical, but again, would her huge clothing and makeup bills upset me if I were a big GOP donor? Nope.
PLEASE UPDATE THE RSS FEED
1 day ago
2 comments:
I agree and disagree. I could understand spending on Palin in order for her to look good. You want your candidates to look at good as possible. But $150k! $75,000 at Neiman Marcus! Are you telling me she coulnd't have gone to Nordstroms or Bloomingdales and come out looking just as good for a lot less. If all the money were going to stylists and image consultants who were responsible for her makeover, that would be one thing. But a lot of the money went for actual clothes. That seems to be a bit much, esp. from somebody running as a "hockey mom." And I don't give a rat's ass that she's not keeping the clothes, that it's going to charity. The point was that $150k was spent on person running as Josephine SixPack. It's the height of hypocrisy. But why should we expect any less than hypocrisy at this point.
In the end, it's meaningless, because while Palin made a dent in the race early on, overall she may have hurt more than she helped. And now reports are that she's gone "rogue" in order to protect her future political prospects.
8 days to go. I look forward to going to sleep early next tuesday and waking up wednesday to a bright, sunny day.
Maybe she can put that $2500 jacket on Ebay?
If it were my $, I would not be angry either. In my opinion these are justified expenses for her campaign.
Post a Comment