Sarah Palin's $150,000 Wardrobe Malfunction?

Sarah Palin, small-town hockey mom and everywoman? More like Sarah Palin, pampered princess. Jeanne Cummings at Politico reports that the RNC’s monthly financial disclosure reports reveal that the Republican National Committee has spent tens of thousands of dollars on the vice presidential candidate's wardrobe and accessories since she was nominated, including $150,000 in September alone.

So it seems you can take the girl out of the beauty pageant, but you can’t take the beauty pageant out of the girl.

Palin's clothes came from retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York, and expenses included nearly $5,000 for hair and makeup. Maybe this is actually her one-woman economic stimulus plan. Lord knows the retail sector needs it.

Still, voters must find it unfathomable for Palin, who has been presented as a woman “like us,” to spend that kind of money on clothes in these difficult financial times, to see her speaking so passionately about Joe the Plumber while plumbing campaign coffers for Valentino jackets and pencil skirts. And yet, they’ve eaten it up, tittering on chat sites about Palin’s Kawasaki eyeglass frames and her Naughty Monkey red peep-toe pumps. (See our earlier take on Gov. Palin's style here.)

Palin’s spokewoman is saying this is much ado about nothing, that we should be talking about more important issues. But can you imagine the outcry if it were revealed that Hilary Clinton’s rainbow of pantsuits was paid for by campaign contributions? Or if college kids’ $50 checks to the Biden/Obama campaign were putting those men in $5,000 custom suits? (Obama’s suits are by Hart Schaffner Marx out of Chicago, and cost in the $1,500 range.)

In Palin’s defense, being a woman in the public eye has its own kind of pressures. And it’s unlikely she has been stepping off the campaign trail to join the ladies who lunch for shopping sprees at Neimans. Instead, she is probably working with a wardrobe stylist, who brings her things to try on and choose from. But the issue of clothing and hair expenses has always been a land mine for politicians (John Edwards' $400 haircuts), and someone should have been sensitive to that.

You also have to wonder how it feels, as a woman, to have everyone know that you really have been dressed up and trotted out like a beauty queen for the American public to wag their tongues at. Caribou Barbie indeed.

-- Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times Fashion Critic

Photo: Republican VP candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin at a campaign rally in Carson, California on October 4, 2008. Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[JRG]

Indeed. How can any small contributor to their campaign reconcile the fact their money is being wasted on such extravagance? I can't wait until 5 Nov, when this baloney is over and Obama takes charge. Palin will be nothing but a memory.....

[notworthreading]

And where do obama and biden shop. both sides or else its not worth reading....

[dumbak]

Only happens in America, GOD bless America.

[Am]

No kidding! She definitely does not represent ME -- not her views, values, ideals, or wardrobe!

[John Mills]

Why is it even a story that a political party whose members took the lead in giving $700 billion of taxpayer's money to hedge fund adminstrators and bankers might be spending $150K a month on Sarah Palin's wardrobe?

[Jon]

Thanks Booth, my feelings exactly.

[danstpaul]

I thank God that in two weeks we won't have put up with this bimbo any longer. She won't be back in 2012. There will have been too many scandals and unwanted pregnancies.

[Mark Simpson]

Typical political spin, speak in public about how down and out poor "Joe the Plumber" is while running wild with the tax payers credit card, she is out of touch. And yes, it is the tax payer footing John McCains campaign costs so you and I are paying for her shopping. Maybe she's working on her life after politics, wanting her own American Express card commercial. The RNC should have just hired Tina Fey, it would have cost less and certainly be less embarrassing. At least Tina Fey doesn't sound like an imbecile when she opens her mouth.

Sarah Palin talks a good game but in practice she does the same as ever other politician. Today's headlines indicate that she abused her role as Governor charging travel expenses for her kids to attend functions at the tax payers expense. Later having to "amend travel documents" to justify their travel. Seems like more of the same.

Maybe the early references to putting lipstick on a pig were actually a preemptive strike by the GOP to paint her as something other than what she really is?

[Aimi's Collectibles]

Here is the spin:

"It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign" (McCain-Palin spokesperson Tracey Schmitt).

HaHa! What are they going to do, put them on eBay?

What a waste of energy and natural resources. Why not just shop at a reasonably priced store (or a thrift or vintage one) and donate the SAVINGS to a worthy cause - like say, paying for Palin's kids to go traveling with her?

Buying and using "Vintage" is better for the environment than buying new (if the item serves a purpose), yet the person who buys it new should get as much use as they can out of it first. Otherwise, it causes a lot of waster b/c of the energy needed to 'recycle' the item.

[T1000]

Anyone with a wife knows they would do the same thing given the chance haha...

[D Selwyn]

$150,000??? I've made that much...over the course of the past 7 or 8 years...

[dave]

"I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she'd look good in anything." Richard Nixon

[T-Bone]

"Palin’s spokewoman is saying this is much ado about nothing, that we should be talking about more important issues."

Oh, NOW they want to talk about important issues... Well, they can start anytime now. Though I won't be holding my breath

[Niles Coventry]

You'd think she'd have enough moose pelts to create her own outfits.

[Blip]

Donate it to charity?

After November 4th, watch for a bag lady in 5000$ knee high gogo boots, pushing a shopping cart full of plastic bottles down Broadway. She'll still be half-blind from drinking rubbing alcohol to treat her schizophrenia...

But she will have nice, sexy boots.

[Joe The Whiner]

It's Obama's fault. The fact that he is a "socialist" is so distressing to Sarah that she has to regularly indulge in some retail therapy to relieve the stress.
Anyone against Sarah wasting donation money at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue is anti American and probably a terrorist.

[Joe The Whiner]

It's Obama's fault. The fact that he is a "socialist" is so distressing to Sarah that she has to regularly indulge in some retail therapy to relieve the stress.
Anyone against Sarah wasting donation money at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue is anti American and probably a terrorist.

[tommyg]

Are you kidding me, is that all you got today. Where she gets her clothes, you are really reaching. Is it OK that Obamas wife eats Iranian caviarto celebrate and nothing is said. Or Biden saying we are going to have a crisis in the first 6 months of Barrack Hussains term and again nothing is said. You libral news iddiots are never going to learn. The plumber asks a question to the all mighty Barrack and he is chastised and riddiculed but all you have to say is Palin gets nice suits. You are a bunch of libral people with blinders on, if he gets in you will regret it and be saying I didn't vote for him. Please get real.

[PP]

I support Obama and don't think too highly of Sarah Palin from what I see in the interview and debates. I don't watch TV, so I haven't seen any of those ads, so my opinion is formed solely by the debates i watch on cnn.com. Anyway, I think this article is a little petty. This lady is running for the 2nd highest office in the land, and it's a big stake. What is wrong with looking your best? And face it, look does matter. Even conman tends to come in suits instead of rags! I thought she look horribly old and out of fashion when she appear in katie couric and that hurts her (in my eyes at least). They did a better job of presenting her in the debates, and it's good on them.Yeah we should be talking about important issue, and that extends to the journalist as well! Why talk about her clothes instead of her policy? I think this article is rather petty and nitpicking.

[LadyPatriot1776]

My 35-yr-old sister just had to close her business that she's thrown herself into over the last 7 years. She just lost her car a couple months ago. And now she is on the verge of losing her house, too. In the last cross-state family visit, she took off her shoes and I was saddened to see that her socks had holes in them. My Mom commented, and my sister replied that she did not have money for socks.

As my sister approaches Winter in Michigan with socks that have holes in them, I am very pleased to see that hundreds of thousands of *our* TAXPAYER dollars are being spent on Palin's clothing, hair and makeup.

I've worked in business and wore full suits every day of the year, yet I only spent $1,200 per YEAR on business clothing. Certainly, Palin could have ''squeaked by'' with a $5,000 wardrobe to get her through 2 months of campaigning, don't you think?

I think my sister would be glad to take Palin's hand-me-downs when Palin is done with them. My sister is bit taller than Palin, but has lost a lot of weight lately because she does not have money to eat very much. I think some of Palin's stuff would fit her.