$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image (NYT)

[jefferson_dem]

$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image
By PATRICK HEALY and MICHAEL LUO



Sarah Palin’s wardrobe joined the ranks of symbolic political excess on Wednesday, alongside John McCain’s multiple houses and John Edwards’s $400 haircut, as Republicans expressed fear that weeks of tailoring Ms. Palin as an average “hockey mom” would fray amid revelations that the Republican Party outfitted her with expensive clothing from high-end stores.

Cable television, talk radio and even shows like “Access Hollywood” seemed gripped with sartorial fever after campaign finance reports confirmed that the Republican National Committee spent $75,062 at Neiman Marcus and $49,425 at Saks Fifth Avenue in September for Ms. Palin and her family.

Advisers to Ms. Palin said on Wednesday that the purchases — which totaled about $150,000 and were classified as “campaign accessories” — were made on the fly after Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, was chosen as the Republican vice-presidential candidate on Aug. 29 and needed new clothes to match climates across the 50 states. They emphasized, too, that Ms. Palin did not spend time on the shopping, and that other people made the decision to buy such an array of clothes.

Yet Republicans expressed consternation publicly and privately that the shopping sprees on her behalf, which were first reported by Politico, would compromise Ms. Palin’s standing as Senator McCain’s chief emissary to working-class voters whose salvos at the so-called cultural elite often delight audiences at Republican rallies.

That possibility was brought to colorful life, for instance, on “The View” on ABC, as Joy Behar, a co-host, noted the McCain campaign’s outreach to blue-collar workers — like an Ohio plumber who recently chided Senator Barack Obama over taxes — after another co-host, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, defended the expenditures.

“I don’t think Joe the Plumber wears Manolo Blahniks,” Ms. Behar said.

Advisers to Mr. Obama — as well as those of his rival in the Democratic primaries, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — said that campaign money was never spent on personal clothing, but that potentially embarrassing purchases could be blended into advertising budgets.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/us/politics/23palin.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. I'm sorry, but why would you ever need $150,000 to clothe your family

for only two months? That's absolutely insane--she wasn't elevated to VP nominee from a job stocking shelves at Target--she was a governor. Surely she has a nice wardrobe, surely her family has decent campaign-trail clothing.

[Blaze Diem]

2. What would the average family struggling to hold onto their monthly expenses do with $150,000.??

This is obscene, no matter what your celebrity position is.
Thats' just for clothing.
How much to fly this worthless drag on McCain's campaign, around the country, house her, and how much for the family appearances?
This is a sample of what the US taxpayers can expect to fork over for the Palin Family should Sarah ever end up as VP.
Milk it baby, milk it.

[Cha]

4. I read some article on the net that

after saying how unwise it was for mccain to do this..thought "the Dems would have way too much fun with it"..

Damn straight..there's no bottom to the hypocricy here that palin is spewing.

[Cha]

3. Why the fuck didn't they go to

a quality store that was below cindy mccain's prize range? Trying to keep up with the mccains?

[wanpete]

5. this revelation is really disgusting, especially with how wickedly they tried to paint

Barack and Michelle as the elitists. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of clothing and how much of it you would have to buy to spend $150,000. Even buying clothes for her entire family. I mean, really, how many outfits did they buy.

This is outrageous and should turn a lot of real "hockey moms" off. I don't care if she is a vice presidential candidate. That is totally ridiculous and very indulgent to say the least.

They are really hypocrites to the highest.

[gauguin57]

6. "Oh, I'm voting for Sarah because she's JUST LIKE ME!"

Uh-huh. Tell me another one.

She and Cindy McCain are just a couple of Marie Antoinettes, draping themselves in expensive clothes while the masses are losing their 401-Ks.

"Let them eat cake," say Cindy Antoinette and Sarah Antoinette.

[undeterred]

7. I'm sorry but I don't see her outfits as vice presidential

She needed to make herself over to be taken more seriously. She should have stayed with conservative suits or dresses. The wardrobe she chose doesn't look like someone who is running for a high office but maybe auditioning to be a television anchor.