Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Sarah Palin: Clothes Elephant

I should say this, that Pat doesn’t have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat. ~ Richard Nixon
In the grand scheme of things the fate of the Republic does not hang on the fact that the only person in the country who is a bigger clothes horse than Sarah Palin is Cindy McCain. Still, the Palin-McCain campaign has based the entire election on symbolism instead of issues or policies so looking at the symbolism is appropriate.
  • In the eight weeks since Sarah Palin was nominated for the Vice-Presidency she has spent $150,000 of campaign funds on clothing.
  • That is more money than most Americans will spend on clothing in their entire lives.
  • Joe the Plumber would have to buy 8,500 pairs of Dickies work pants ($17.64 at Walmart) to match her.
  • Even Joe the Investment Banker would have to buy 120 Yves Saint Laurent business suits ($1,276 at Bluefly).
  • Sarah did not buy this clothing with her own money; she used campaign funds to play dress up. Consider it welfare for fashion divas.
  • Her clothes budget makes the $21,800 Palin and McCain have spent on make-up look tiny.
While I seriously doubt that Sarah owns a respectable Republican cloth coat, she does own an extravagant Republican fur coat.

To put things in perspective, poor Sarah is just trying to play catch up. Cindy McCain had a $300,000 outfit for just one day at the Republican Convention. Sarah is just a street waif by contrast.

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