kritter Interested-  Where  did I say  its illegal?. It is perfectly legal. He accepted public financing then realized it would put him at a disadvantage-so he asked for help from the RNC, BTW, I attempted to post a NYT's article where he announced that this was his intention- but it never showed up???  Its easy enough to find if you Google McCain gets financial help from RNC. And, Actually the DNC asked for money for its candidates from Obama-- since he was doing better than they were. Harry Reid asked him, but Obama turned him down. I'll try to post proof if you don't believe it.  I'm not writing about this to attack or defend either candidate- as far as I know both have stayed within the campaign finance laws- tho Palin's wardrobe may be a gray area. My only beef is that it goes against the image of Palin as this outdoorsy one-of-us soccer mom.

Interested ahh so your shifting your beef - usual tactic. If you're capable with google - Google Palin, find images of her hunting, fishing, every day stuff. Try to find the same with Obama

C Stanley Kim #31: No, I am not as you suggest, "defending Palin but questioning Obama/Biden". I said that I think that's a huge amount of money for wardrobe but I suspect it's not much different than any other female candidate would amass in wardrobe/image. What I'm saying is that expensive campaigning is a bipartisan problem driven by what the voters want and respond to- but since it's on both sides, it makes no sense to use this in a calculus of who to vote for. You compare these expenditures to Michelle Obama's one dress, which is completely an apples to oranges comparison. Michelle is the candidate's wife, not candidate herself (so she's not out there making three or four appearances a day for several months), the Palin number includes her whole family, etc, etc. As far as what the high dollar clothing budget says about Palin being an ordinary woman, you can look at it either as though she herself chose to spend all of this money (no evidence of that as far as I can see) or what appears to be more accurate, that the political operatives in the campaign decided that her physical appearance was very important and apparently she didn't already have a $100,000 wardrobe in her closet (which is evident from the many photos that show her outdoor/Alaskan lifestyle, which hardly lends itself to wearing Neiman Marcus clothing.) Even if you want to talk about Michelle Obama- how much does an entire outfit cost if you start with a $150 dress? Absolute minimum would be $500 when you add in shoes, accessories, and makeup/hair-so then the total Palin amount comes to 300 outfits (a lot, but then remember again that that amount was for her whole family- husband's suits likely cost a lot more, and there are 5 kids, etc.) Again, I think the amount is a lot and I wouldn't have chosen to do it that way (if it were up to me, people wouldn't care about clothing and appearance so much- but since they do, I don't fault the strategists for using campaign money as it is meant to be used, to present their candidates in the best way possible.) And you continue to spin for your candidate, Kim, when you complain that campaign spending is exorbitant but you completely give Obama a pass for having upped the ante to the most expensive campaign in history- and you use the usual talking point about the '$20 donations (you know, the ones from jkl;iuasd and Mr. Good Will.) Anyone who doesn't realize that a huge number of his small donations came through the efforts of bundlers or laundering schemes is being either deliberately naive or incredibly foolish.

kritter Interested- I have no beef. I don't know what you are talking about- but I'm not in the mood to argue. The topic of the post was the RNC spending $150,000 on Palin's clothes. My point was and still is that this hurts her image that they are trying to project of her as the Walmart shopping soccer mom. She's running a campaign on cutting wasteful spending- and running around wearing $8,000 suits! And, I personally  would never vote for anyone who shoots wolves out of a helicopter or kills moose, even if that is her real personna. If it is let her dress out of LLBean instead of Neiman Marcus for those who like that kind of woman. If Obama was a hunter or a fisherman, it wouldn't help him with me-- I'm a vegetarian. CS-  I thought You conservatives are the ones who hated McCain-Feingold.  Something about interfering with free speech. Now you support public financing all of a sudden? Obama is doing what it takes to win- maybe he learned how fromt the GOP. If his donations came in through bundlers- that's nothing new is it? Just like McCain rails against the lobbyists in Washington then hires them to run his campaign! And I don't know about you, but I buy my shoes at discount stores and would never spend that much on accessories. You can make any excuse for Palin that you want but to me  it comes down to wasteful spending. Its no shame to be thrifty and Michelle proved you can look great on a budget. Michelle may be the candidate's wife but she is out there for Obama making speeches while he's in Hawaii with his grandma. They are a team. She made a speech at the convention- just like Palin. The average joe-six pack person is going to look at this and conclude that Palin is not of the same world as they are. The political operatives are selling a product- and the most important thing to remember when doing that is that most people want someone genuine, So, I and a lot of others think they made a mistake in taking her on a shopping spree when so many are struggling, and it goes against the personna they are trying to sell. Just as she got good press for buying diapers in Walmart, she will get bad press now. In the end its not what you and I think that matters: its what people think who saw Michelle on the View and then read about Sarah and her $150,000 wardrobe. Because most people are not going to rationalize it the way you are. You are doing quite a bit of spinning yourself, Christine. 8) If the shoe was on the other foot, do you think you would be talking about the exhorbitant costs of campaigning on both sides?  

C Stanley Actually I don't support McCain-Feingold, Kim, but I know that McCain does and I wonder why Obama doesn't- or more to the point, why he said he did support campaign finance reform but decided not to walk the walk as soon as it was apparent that he'd have a competitive advantage in fundraising? And come on, please. Yes, I buy almost all of my shoes at Off Broadway, Famous Footwear, and the like- but would I do so for a major business occasion? Probably not- I'll occasionally buy a few higher dollar items, and I think it perfectly appropriate for someone who's being constantly photographed to do so. Again, I personally think the total amount and the brands are exhorbitant...but I truly don't care just as I didn't care about McCain's shoes, Cindy McCain's wardrobe, or Edwards' haircuts (not to mention cosmetic work that Hillary and Joe Biden appear to have had done.) I do think the public has certain expectations- it's unfortunate that people are so shallow, but I would not expect a candidate to buy budget clothing just to make a point, only to lose the election partly due to image. Palin was being attacked as a small town hick, so it doesn't surprise me in the least that there were image consultants who wanted to deck her out in more sophisticated clothing. I'd be happy to talk about campaign spending being exhorbitant on both sides, by the way- if we actually had information to compare side by side and criticize both parties wherever that criticism was due. Seems that the MSM is only interested in SOME spending though (I do remember, as I mentioned earlier, reading about Biden's huge landscaping bill that was footed by his Senate campaign with the reason given that he was holding a fundraiser there- if I remember it was something like $30,000 worth of landscaping, so we're not talking about paying the lawn company $100 to cut and edge and blow off the trimmings here). So how does that square with Joe's regular guy, least wealthy member of the Senate image? All I'm saying is you can harp on this all you want but it doesn't really reflect on Sarah Palin's own lifestyle. She obviously has led a comfortably upper middle class lifestyle in AK, but one which is pretty down to earth and focused on outdoor activities. If you think Joe Sixpack is going to object to the fact that the campaign has glamorized her image, I dunno, I think a lot of those guys are rather enjoying the show. ;-) This is all pretty stupid, don't you think? It'd be like saying the White House ought not to host lavish dinners because our economy is in bad shape. Maybe symbolically some Americans would like that, but in the scheme of things it's extremely unimportant and certain traditions and protocols are pretty well accepted even though there are expenses involved in 'keeping up appearances.'

C Stanley Ahem. What was it you were saying about all of those $20 donors to the Obama campaign, Kim? Honestly, it's beyond me how anyone could still be falling for the 'change' rhetoric when Obama appears to be the most far left AND most dishonest candidate in recent history. Well, I should say that I can understand the fact that a bunch of wide eyed kids are falling for it, but the adults who still think he's the real deal just blow my mind.

kritter CS- LIke Colin Powell, Susan Eisenhower, Scott McClellan, Arnie Carlson, the Goldwaters? Yes, how dare these delusional adults  endorse this lying socialist over the honest and decent Sen McCain? McCain in his earlier years criticized the $200 dollar Clinton haircuts, and did not want campaign funds spent on luxuries like tuxedos. Well, he must have flip-flopped big time on that one- right Christine?

kritter CS-Yes, I get that she might want an upgrade from Off Broadway Shoes- (who actually have some great deals-at least in my neck of the woods) but C'mon you could buy shoes plated in  platinum for that kind of dough! You could buy Joe the plumber's house and buy him a nice boat to take out on the lake!  And you didn't answer my comment that most voters aren't going to Google Palin to see if she wears Prada in Alaska or if she's got her wolf-skin jacket on! They are going to react just like Julie here. And yes the coverage does seem a bit skewed- but the Dems have certainly been in THAT position in other election years. Remember how they obsessed over Gore's sighing during his presidential debates and mocked him for wearing earth tones? And they certainly were ready to jump down Hillary's throat at the slightest gaffe-even tho she  outperformed her primary opponents consistently at the debates.  In 2000 they loved John McCain and dubbed him the "maverick".      

kritter CS Maybe it is superficial and stupid, but our political landscape is filled with symbolic outrages that stemmed from a larger frustration.  Of course its not the most important issue out there- but it is one that voters can grab on to when they think about the W.S. bailout and their shrinking pensions. They may not even analyze it- but just react out of anger. It wasn't a very smart move by the political operative who planned the shopping spree and then tried to market her as "one of us".