She’s Just Like You

This week there is a huge hubbub over Sarah Palin’s wardrobe expenses. There’s still some life in the story and my favorite headline from the conservatives is from this National Review piece.

The problem isn’t that the wardrobe cost so much. It’s that Ms. Palin has said on numerous occasions that she’s just a “hockey mom” and part of the “Joe Six-Pack” nation. There were problems with this assertion before this latest gaffe.

The weird thing is that conservatives BUY IT. They believe that a couple making over a hundred grand a year is “just like me”. The other people on the ticket all make more money than Palin, to be sure, but come on. Joe Six-Pack if your six-pack includes six bottles of expensive champagne. When was the last time YOU spent $75k on clothes from Neiman-Marcus?

Conservatives got all crazy about John Edward’s $400 haircut and fashion expenditures of Hillary Clinton. The shoe is on the other foot now. And that foot appears to be in the self-righteous mouth of the GOP.

  • http://www.eleventwentyseven.com christine1127

    The Daily Show’s take on this was pretty funny.

    Link

  • tippiedog

    I agree, Jon, that it’s amazing that people can buy this. But part of the problem, I think, lies with people’s perceptions of their own spot on the income scale. I’ve always heard that most people consider themselves ‘upper middle class.’

    I think McCain is also counting on this misconception when he rails about how Obama wants to redistribute wealth (“spread the wealth around”). He’s implying that wealth will be taken from most of his listeners, when in fact, many (most?) of them will be the recipients of the redistributed wealth.

    (Irony of ironies: In point of fact, of course, McCain also wants to further redistribute wealth, just mostly in the opposite direction: from the less affluent to the already more affluent.)

  • tippiedog

    I should have made that clearer in the second paragraph: McCain implies that wealth will be taken from his listeners (who assume they’re higher on the income scale than they are) and (unfairly) given to poorer people, when in fact, many of those listeners are in fact among the poorer who will benefit from Obama’s proposed policies.

  • tippiedog

    After reading the links in your post, I did some calculations: Wardrobe malfunction

  • wthomp1976

    This story about Palin using Alaska funds to take her kids to posh functions around the country was headline news for only a minute:

    http://​www​.cnn​.com/​2​0​0​8​/​P​O​L​I​T​I​C​S​/​1​0​/​2​1​/​p​a​l​i​n​.​t​r​a​v​e​l​.​a​p​/​i​n​d​e​x.html

    For some reason, this story made me furious. Especially the 5 nights in a $700 a night hotel for a 5-hour (one day) conference. I’ve never worked anywhere that would pick up the tab for including family in travel plans. What a waste! Furthermore, I stay at home with the baby and my husband is a Navy petty officer… I suppose we are lower– to middle class income. It would take us years upon years of saving to live the lifestyle Palin bills Alaska for. She couldn’t possibly understand us, not at all.

  • Candice

    I can honestly say I have never had Palin envy until I read about the tab she rang up at Neiman-Marcus. Jeez! It appears that they spent close to $150k on clothing — and this is the same party who criticized Obama early on for his Armani suits. My favorite photo of Obama is the one with his feet up on the desk, showing the bottom of his shoes in the foreground. The man resoles his shoes! He owns one house! And one car! What a friggin’ elitist…

  • http://dailyvignette.wordpress.com/ Toni
  • http://miniaturerose.blogspot.com miniaturerose

    The mind boggles at the cognitive dissonance which must be required to not only accept, but justify and endorse this obscene spending spree.

    My favourite line about this latest development: “The Pitbull Wears Prada”, in a most excellent piece in today’s Toronto Star.

  • http://sayheyday.wordpress.com/ ikarl67

    I the spirit of fairness and to demonstrate I am not a schill, this conservative will concur with Blurb in agreeing that the $150K for clothes in 30 days was the epitome of hypocrisy.

    I don’t know what else the RNC can do to lose this election, they just might be out of ideas. And judging from the past few years, new ideas ain’t coming anytime soon.

  • http://sayheyday.wordpress.com/ ikarl67

    And to even further demonstrate that I will call bullshit when I see it , Gegharity of the NRO is full of shit. ” The whole wardrobe is going to Charity”. No Shit Jim, She can’t keep the clothes purchased by the RNC, its the fucking LAW!

    I will be even more pissed off at my former party if they tried to spin this as some charitable act.

    Believe it or not , some conservatives are capable of critical thought, and a subset of those are even able to apply that critical thinking to ourselves.

  • http://blurbomat.com blurb

    @ikarl67, so would the giveaway to charity be considered “spreading the wealth”?

    How socialist of our laws and stuff.

    That’s a joke, people.

  • http://athornyway.blogspot.com Craig

    That NRO piece was just… wow. There are no words.

    @blurb, I’m sorry that you now have to tell people when it’s a joke.

    @InterNets: stop getting offended at everything. No one really cares what any of us thinks anyways.

  • atalou

    Callie Shell’s photos of Obama’s resoled shoes? Now, that I can relate to.
    http://​www​.digitaljournalist​.org/​i​s​s​u​e​0​8​1​0​/​c​a​l​l​i​e​-​b​p.html — (You need to scroll down about 20 shots.)

  • Amellah

    I’d love to know where she’s going to donate . I’m not seeing that kind of stuff at my local Good Will.

    Maybe they have a Washington Insiders sort of cast off shop.

  • shaunna
  • tracy

    I just hope that the country doesn’t think all Alaskans love Palin because that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, there was an anti-Palin rally at the Capitol weekend before last.

    Her behavior & actions make us look like idiots. It pisses me off to no end that she gets paid freakin’ per diem TO LIVE IN HER OWN HOUSE, when she chooses NOT to live in the Governor’s House, as if asking our governor to live in the capital city is an unreasonable request. You used to see Governor Knowles walking from the Gov. house to the Capitol with his dog every morning & he’d give you a smile. I miss those days.

    ~ born & raised in Juneau Alaska & not a Palin-lover

  • http://www.ransom-note-typography.com/ jon deal

    Given the state of the race, if I were an RNC donor, I’d be pissed about the amount of the expenditure. $150 would buy A LOT of McCain/Palin lawn signs. Or ads in tight areas.

    Though as a godless liberal who’s in the tank for Obama, I’m quite happy that the RNC had $150K less to spend on horrible attack ads.

    Take that woman shopping more often, I say!

  • kristinkj

    Come on, you know if she was under-dressed, looking frumpy, etc. that the Media and Democrats would be raking her over the coals even MORE than they are now.

    So what? They spent some money on her wardrobe and makeup. She’s in the national spotlight! She’s running for VP!

    If you think that spending is outrageous, just wait until (if) Obama is elected. His “I won’t raise taxes” will turn into “Sorry folks, I gotta raise your taxes.” I give it 4 months till we hear that song from him.

  • http://blurbomat.com blurb

    @kristinkj, actually, I don’t know that the Dems would be attacking her appearance.

    I have no problem spending money for wardrobe. That’s not the issue. The issue is she claims to be “just like you” and represents the average Joe Six Pack. Those were her claims. Not the media, not “liberal elites”, not actual elites like the McCains who own more houses than you can count on two hands.

    I’ve said before in the comments that we’ll all be paying for the reckless Reaganomics that have been practiced by the last three Republican presidents going back to 1981. The question is: who will pay? One of the most interesting paradoxes in discussing taxes with conservatives is that they continually vote for candidates who think that the notion of trickle down works, when clearly the opposite is true.

    We’re facing a couple of hard years. There will be sacrifices. Sarah Palin’s (and by extension, the GOP’s) choice to spend that kind of money in the face of this economic climate says a lot about her and her party.

  • casey0222

    I just wanted to mention something else no one has really commented upon in this whole Palin thing. Hocky costs a freaking fortune to play: skates for growing children — $200/pair, endless sticks and pucks, pads and uniforms, league fees and ICE TIME. This is not a cheap sport — and not affordable to many ‘Joe Six Packs’ out there.