Even republican donors and activists are reportedly pissed about it.

She's decked out in designer clothes at the RNC's expense, meanwhile republican congressmen and senators are going to lose their seats because they don't have cash for ads.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1008/14805.html

The Republican National Committee has spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August.

According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74.

The records also document a couple of big-time shopping trips to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including one $75,062.63 spree in early September.

The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.

Working class hero.

Kind of reminds me (or at least it came to mind) of Eva Peron...

It costs money to wash the killer snakes out of her hair you know!

To put it in perspective:

If Edwards had gotten one of his legendary haircuts every single week, it would still take him 7.2 years to spend what Palin has spent.

Palin's fashion budget for several weeks was more than four times the median salary of an American plumber ($37,514).

Palin received more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years.

Her clothes were the cost of a year's worth of health care for 15 or so people.

how much more do women's clothes and haircuts cost?

There's some sort of fable about emperors and clothes that would be very appropriate here.

Just a good ol hockey mom indeed

At least she's not one of those dang ol' elitists like Obama!

I'm more surprised the Republicans are taking advantage of her getting free clothing. Huge marketing opportunity for clothing companies. Pretty dumb to spend that much.

The wingnutosphere was going ape-shit last week over a FAKE story about Michelle Obama ordering $400 in room service at a hotel in NYC (she was in the midwest at the time).

Geez, I imagine they'll be quite livid over this, don't you?

shes such an average American woman hockey mom outsider

More info on make-up.



Dang! McCain himself requires a bunch of make-up to cover his scars. You wouldn't think Palin would need too much.

150K? I'm jealous...

This is a funny thing to be shocked about, though. Palin has been scrutinized so intensely every time a snapshot of her hits the papers. Did you expect her to show up in jeans and a tank-top she purchased at Caldors? The RNC offered to cover this in its attempt to spice up the campaign. Palin was always picked because she of her ability to produce herself as a celebrity in the public's eyes. She did what it took. And you know, if someone offered to pick up my clothes shopping tabs, damn straight I would take it.

150K is a lot in a month or two, but not overall. Cumulatively I would guess my clothes, shoes, accessories add up to a couple thousand, but I do have stuff reaching as far back as when I lived in Rome that I never tossed out because its all still in good condition. Cumulatively, Palin's clothing probably wasn't much more, its just that she couldn't wear her old stuff on national television and so the purchases have come on quick and heavy. I never saw her as a soccer mom, but still, who the hell really cares if you purchased new outfits for your big national debut.

You guys mean to tell me tha if you woke up one day and wereinformed the entire country (and world) would be closely scrutinizing your looks and composure every minute of the day you woldn't run out to the nearest shopping district and sp[ruce yourself up?

She's been in the spotlight for something like 60 days. That's like, 2.5 thousand per day.

I promise you that she could buy two brand new outfits every day that no one could possibly criticize for less than half that.

She had to dress the family up, too, and she's got a damn big family seeing as how she doesn't believe in Planned Parenthood.

Really, 2.5 thousand a day if it means 1.25 thousand per outfit (if you are getting two a day and not counting haircuts, makeup, etc.). That's pretty normal if an outfit requires pants/skirt, blouse/tip, jacket, shoes, some accessories like earrings or a necklace. Hell, most of my crappy jeans cost more than two hundred dollars. I could easily see pants for national tv being 3-400, a blouse being 2-300 and a button-down jacket being 3-400. Then, earrings around 200 and shoes around 200. Now its getting cold and you have to have nice looking winter jackets, too. You people really think that your debut on the national stage is the time to start counting pennies? Media impressions are everything, and I still do not find 150k to be all too shocking.

No way. If you cant buy an outfit that is suitable for national TV for 500 bucks, you're doing something wrong. Either shopping at the wrong places, or just not trying.

Her family isnt supposed to be in the spotlight anyway and she had at times said to leave the privacy of her family alone. You cant have a two way street and dress your own family in expensive outfits. The GOP needs every single dollar for the campaign and its not supposed to be a glamour show

1) The RNC offered because it is ILLEGAL to buy clothes on the campaign dime and Sarah Palin sure as heck isn't going to spend $150K of her own money on clothes and make-up.

2) It's not like she dressed like a truck driver as the governor of Alaska. She looked pretty good. What was wrong with that, especially if you're trying to portray yourself as the average Jane hockey mom?

3) The $150K was spent almost entirely spent in two VERY upscale stores, not over her whole life or several months. It's an obscene amount of money no matter how you slice it.

4) Michelle Obama has been scrutinized as well. She has the money and yet they spend relatively frugally on clothes.

5) Purely from a political standpoint, they've just spent the better part of two months trying to paint Obama as an out-of-touch elitist celebrity, and then they get busted with this. If nothing else, it makes them look like the hypocrites they are.

The Fox News "coverage" of this story: "Let's find out why Sarah Palin looks so good..."

Oh by the way, it's because the media is sexist:

i can't comment on 150K. I can't conceive a 150K shopping spree.

But i'll have to give it to her that she has a point.

Someone like me can wear a black suit, and change my shirt or tie a few times and voila, 6 different looks using one pair of suit and shoes (which are probably the most expensive part of the wardrobe).

A woman, CANNOT, doesn't matter how politically correct or unsexist you may try to be, in this day and age, pull off recycling the same clothes. for every 1 suit obama or mccain invest in, hilary or palin would normally have to have 4 or 5 dresses to compensate, along with everything matching. i would also figure that clothing in general, for a woman, would cost more (if my inventory of clothes and that of my wife is anything to go by).

the argument that she can dress more like Michelle is true and there are cost savings. but i do think that comparing a woman to a man in this case, would be incorrect. and its us as an audience who would definetely indeed make a big point of palin showing up wearing the exact same thing within a month ... o hthe SNL skits and such.

Again, i can't possibly defend 150K .. couldn't even defend 50K ... but there is definetely an existing double standard that exists.

Does your wife spend $150K on clothes in just six weeks? Does anyone outside of Hollywood or Park Avenue? And again, this would be at the time they're trying to portray Obama as an out-of-touch celebrity elitist.

It would be interesting to find out what Hillary spent on pant suits the first six weeks of her primary, or Michelle Obama on the first six weeks after Barack's winning the nomination.

Here's Barack Obama in March, basically wearing hobo shoes.

its nice how it seems like yo udidn't even bother reading someone's post and stuck to only those points that somehow allow you to retort back. but i've come to expect this.

i will not be entertaining you with a reply considering this has already been answered in the earlier post.

I don't think it would normally matter much except for 3 factors.

1) The RNC is low on cash as it is, there are senators and congressman who are going to lose for lack of ad money, so it is naturally galling to some republicans to see money used in this way when they might feel it could have been done more economically.

2) The McCain campaign claimed a moral superiority high ground with Palin being an average person. They can't stress that to the extent they did and then not have people feel it's hypocritical that she's decked out like this. If she wasn't running so much on biography it wouldn't bother people as much.

3) Right now we're going through a period where people's 401ks have been chopped in half and seeing that kind of clothes and budget reminds people of the worst excesses of the rich this decade, fairly or not.

If this were an ordinary election and she were a random senator or governor then I doubt it would raise many eyebrows.

Irrelevant!

your country is burning and your concerned about the fashion of a Milf...


Just tells you how America got into this mess.

its an issue when your campaign is based upon speaking for joe six pack, hockey moms and joe the plumber, criticizing the other party for being elitist and then spending in one month, what most people won't even make as a family in a year and then saying you're there for the average man.

and hey ... the DNC nor the democrats coined and shoved those joe six pack and hockey moms and mavericks down our throats. she did. what she may be doing is completely legal, and needed to keep that image up but it compeltely defies her message. add the 26K or so findings of her charging for her kids to travel with her to events they were never suppose to be in the first place and its just showing more and more what a person like this might do with the money that the govt., at some point, may be providing them for official use. Is she going to be spending this much before touring Japan or some other countries?