Loading ...RNC spent $150,000 to buy clothes, makeup for the Palins
flockwoodThis story from Politico.com isn’t getting a lot of play yet, but it will. Believe me, it will. Apparently, the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 to buy clothes, makeup and accessories for vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her family. The tab at Nieman Marcus alone was more than $75,000. The McCain campaign has issued a statement questioning the relevance of the disclosure, saying it was “remarkable” that people would focus on the issue.The clothes will all go to charity, once the election is over, they added. Click here to read the story. HuffingtonPost.com says Palin has spent more on clothes in the past two months than the typical American family spends in 80 years.
One other weird election related story. A poll in Investors Business Daily claims that young voters have shifted their support from Barack Obama to John McCain. (Click here to see the poll.) According to this poll, McCain has a 10 point lead among voters ages 18-24 and does better with that demographic than any other age group polled. Every other poll I’ve seen claims Obama has a lock on the youth vote…
October 22nd, 2008 at 9:14 am
Well, thanks be to the RNC that the poor will be the ultimate beneficiaries here.
That is just what the homeless need–clothes fron Nieman’s and jewelry from Sak’s.
No wonder it has been observed that “there is less to Palin than meets the eye.”
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
Obviously this is ridiculous on the RNC’s part, but let’s be honest here. If Palin had shown up in less than the “finest” then she would have been ripped by someone for that, for not looking “vice-presidential” enough.
Was it wrong? Definitely, yes. Was it almost necessary in this day and age? Unfortunately, yes. The majority of this country’s population stopped asking relevant questions and digging for their own answers long ago in the political process. I almost want to puke when the only answer I can get from the majority of Obama’s supporters that I speak to as to why they are voting for him is, “We need change….” And what does that mean? “Uh…..that he’ll change things!” Oh, OK. Thanks for clearing that up for me….
On the other side, we have people so wrapped up in being “conservative” that they couldn’t see a good idea from a democrat if it hit them in the head. And yes, my fellow conservatives,
The problem is not so much that the RNC bought Palin clothes, it’s that the process we have now in this country is so convulted, so long, so ridiculous, that this kind of crap is almost necessary. The amount of money that one has to spend to get elected, republican or democrat, is obscene. I mean come on, people, what is Obama spening to get those 30 minutes ads on the major networks? How much better could that money be spent?
This kind of things goes on from both sides, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:59 am
Sarah Palin is nothing but a body on which to put expensive clothes. Period. Her selection as VP candidate shows that the Republicans have stooped to the lowest level to which I’ve ever seen them stoop, and I’ve lived through Nixon and Ernie Fletcher. They picked her solely as a token woman, to try to pick up the votes of Democratic women mad because Hilary wasn’t the nominee. Her religious views appear to be pedestrian and ill informed, and she apparently has no political views other than that the Republicans should win, if only to keep the minorities and non-evangelicals in their place.
She’s not conservative; she’s an idiot who was adopted by the conservatives and who has learned to parrot their talk without understanding any of it. I mean, this is a woman who issued a statement warning young girls about the dangers of skin cancer while installing a tanning bed in the Alaska governor’s mansion. All I can say is that if the American people elect this ticket to office, they will get what they deserve, and I will have no sympathy for them.
October 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Are you people idiot’s are what? Do you not think that big money has not been spent on clothing first Hillary, and now Obama and his family? Nothing, nothing, is left untouched in order to make Obama and his family look like the most beautiful, put together and wonderfully manicured family in every way. So if you are going to talk about clothing costs, lets be fair and look at the other side as well.
And by the way, parrot talk, adopted conservative, tanning beds……..First we are talking about Alaska….do you know how many hours of darkness that they must deal with? You would probably have a “tanning” bed in your own home if you lived where you had very little sun during certain times of the year. Parot talk….give me a break, Obama can’t even write hiw own books, everything in them has been stolen from others. And yes, I’d rather have someone who has adopted conservatism rather then someone who has embraced white hatred from his minister of 20 years, and terrorist thinking from his so called friends.
October 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Okay, Sandy, sorry to attack your sacred whatever; go back to sleep.
October 22nd, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Frank, congratulations: You scooped the NYTimes on this one! Their website now has the story, but didn’t when you first posted it.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I totally agree with you Caleb. Palin was a terrible pick! It should have been Romney!
And no, Sandy, neither AG, Caleb, nor I are idiots…but welcome to the blog! Keep posting, if you have anything worth typing.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Also noticed I didn’t complete my sentence above….
It should have read, “And, yes, my fellow conservatives, some good ideas have come from the other side of the aisle, when people start thing about what is best for our country, not what is best for their particular political party.”
October 23rd, 2008 at 4:47 am
Well guys: Most women (in Kentucky) just love Ms. Palin, and think you men are just running scared that she just might win. Look at it this way,If McCain win, America will become a praying nation once again, even if it is for McCain’s longevity of life for the next four years.
Has anyone seen the questioned the amount of money Ms Obama has spent on her outfits?
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:08 am
Hey peach,
Apples and Oranges… I am assuming that we’re not hearing about Ms. Obama’s outfits because they were not purchased with donors money and listed as a campaign expense. Any individual can buy they clothes he or she wants and can afford with his or her own money, but it makes a real difference when you are using OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY to play dress up on the campaign trail.
And really, $150,000… that’s more than the average family spends across two generations. And this from the “folksy, down to earth” candidate? The “normal, small town american?”
Contrast this trip to Nieman Marcus with her recent, staged, photo op trip to Walmart to buy diapers. How can you not see the fakery and the hypocrisy?
Oh, and about the Obamas…. Barack Obama has his shoes resoled when they wear out on the trail. He wears the same suits over and over, and his family has not had 150,000 worth of clothes “loaned” to them.
http://current.com/items/89438339_walking_the_walk_priceless
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 am
Oh, and Peach, I know quite a few Kentucky women (including my wife) who are not in love with Palin!
Meanwhile, the optometrist’s shop down the road from me has a huge banner that reads “Get Palinized! Kawasaki frames are in stock!”
Proving that at the very least, the McCain-Palin ticket has been good for the eyeglasses industry!
October 23rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
The boon to the eyeglass industry stems from some people’s hope of being able to see something to her that has so far not met the eye.
She has been proved a fraud at being just one of us ordinary folks.
She has been proved a fraud on the “family values” matter, with her choice of a full time career instead of staying at home to raise her family.
She has been proved a religious fraud for abandoning her decades long church home for a more politically expedient alternative.
She has been proved a fraud with her readiness to distort, misrepresent, slander, and lie for her own (and McCain’s) benefit on the campaign trail.
October 23rd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
AG: you’ve hit a nerve that I must respond to. Men in this decade demand they have a working wife (especially in the lower-middle class income). In my single years, I venture that 9out of 10 men usually brought up “I will not marry unless the woman works also.” Now we have a nation of working women, and this upsets the male ego, because our positions are higher than the average males. There is nothing wrong with Sarah working, and her husband taking care of the kiddies. In fact, most other countries and religions believe that it is the man’s responsibility to raise and train their children in the correct manner. Gee, if you look hard enough, that may even be Biblical.
As far as she has been proved a religious fraud for abandoning her decades long church home for a more politically expedient alternative, Well the same goes for Obama. Did he not leave his 2 decades long church because of racial hatred being preached against us whites behind the pulpit?
Please—distort and slander are a part of every candidates speech on the campaign trail. Really!
UK: I think spending any amount of money is a travesty on any hungry person. Now with all the foreclosures the sadness only deepens. I really do care if Obama made his own money or not, the real travesty is that millions of children will not get the education he has received because of the circumstances at hand. Personally since Obama would prefer to spread the wealth, why doesn’t he start with his own, I know hundred of Kentuckians sure could use some money.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:37 pm
I’m sorry guys, once again for me, its not about the obvious, why would the RNC disclose this purchase so close to the election? What image are they trying to portray to the American people by doing this? We know that all Alaskans get a royalty check from big oil annually, is there a connection here? John McCain,s wife has been know to wear outfits that exceed 100k per outfit, to me this portrays some sort of sympathy shopping or reward type deal for Palin’s participation for the Republican party. I think there is alot more here than what meets the eye, but what it it is I don’t have a clue.
October 24th, 2008 at 4:42 am
The purchases appeared on some kind of mandatory disclosure form because they were paid for by campaign contributions. Disclosures help to tamp down some fraud. Without such transparency, having a few people in charge of lots of donated money is a recipe for trouble.
McCain’s wife is fabulously wealthy, but her clothes are undoubtedly purchased with her personal funds instead of campaign donations.
There are several reasons to find fault with this news. The one that really bugs me is hypocrisy. Unlike Cindy McCain, who never pretended to be a commoner, Gov. Palin does talk about her small town middle class values and simple home life in order to gain sympathy from voters. This story undercuts that image severely. One columnist this week did the math. Assuming that Palin wears each outfit only twice, and counting the number of days between convention and election day, it worked out to more than $4000 per outfit. Then columnist then went to the websites for the listed stores to see how much an outfit cost, and had difficulty spending that much!
Another news item hurting Palin is her travel expenses, especially when she requests reimbursement for staying in her own home, and when she expects for others to pay the expenses for her uninvited family. That doesn’t jive with the image of a penny-pinching executive.
Remember last year when the GOP made such a fuss about John Edwards and his $400 haircut? What goes around comes around.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Honestly, it would appear to me that the GOP is inviting Gov. Palin into some sort of rich white woman’s club?
October 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Perplexed, the Republican Party IS a rich white club, though it admits men as well as women. Usually the members are rich enough to buy their own clothes, though. If you were worried that Sister Sarah’s makeup (I thought pentcostals didn’t wear make-up) won’t be as good as her clothes, you can relax. The NYTimes reported today on one of its blogs that her makeup artist was the highest paid member of the McCain/Palin team during the first half of October. Thank God they’re not wasting money on anything like policy advisors. She was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October, but is probably worth it, given that she was nominated for an Emmy for her makeup work on “So You Think You Can Dance?” Do pentcostals dance? I mean, outside of church? This whole thing is too much for me.