It turns out that the Republican National Committee has shelled out $150,000 for Palin’s wardrobe since her selection as McCain’s running mate.
Now I’m sure that it’s important that candidates look good, photograph well, and not be caught in the same outfit across multiple nearly concurrent photo opportunities. I’m also sure that it’s more expensive to appropriately outfit a woman candidate than a man, because the reality is that a man can get away with a few good suits, a few shirts, and an extensive collection of snappy ties, while women’s fashion requires greater variety and more special outfits.
The reason that I think this story is interesting is because of what it says about the candidate, and what it says about her party.
As for the candidate, the reality is that you simply can’t have it both ways. You can’t be a person of the people, the common man or woman, and imply, as Palin does, that she is from the “real, pro-America” part of the country, with all of her down-homeisms and appeals to small town virtues, and then blow $150,000 of donor’s money on your outfits while the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression is happening and scaring the beejeezus out of the country.
The second reason is that I think it reveals what a lot of people have come to believe – that the Republicans have been most excited about Palin because she looks good. Clearly they didn’t care about her lack of experience, education or intelligence. But she looks great in a tight sweater (just like Katherine Harris – see http://hatepalin.com/2008/10/sarahs-future/). And I think that the cynical and sexist Republican party looked no further, and was willing to open the purse strings to make sure she did just that. Look good.
In all fairness, I’m sure it’s very difficult to find a conservative, attractive, young-ish woman in the Republican party. Most of the much more qualified Republican women of stature are older, and wouldn’t address McCain’s glaring age issue. And the Republican party has not been especially welcoming to women or embraced issues of particular importance to women. As a result, there simply aren’t as many women in the party who have been elected to office. So McCain and the RNC did their desperate “hail Palin” long pass into the endzone. Just like in football, it’s high risk, and it fails more often than it succeeds.
But when you’re down and time is running out you take bigger risks. And, apparently, you need more expensive clothes too.
