Palin: What not to wear
Posted: Thursday, October 23, 2008 8:56 AM by Carrie Dann
The New York Times front-pages the $150,000 shopping spree for Palin -- and what it might have done to her political image. Sarah Palin’s wardrobe joined the ranks of symbolic political excess on Wednesday, alongside John McCain’s multiple houses and John Edwards’s $400 haircut, as Republicans expressed fear that weeks of tailoring Ms. Palin as an average “hockey mom” would fray amid revelations that the Republican Party outfitted her with expensive clothing from high-end stores.” More: “Republicans expressed consternation publicly and privately that the shopping sprees on her behalf, which were first reported by Politico, would compromise Ms. Palin’s standing as Senator McCain’s chief emissary to working-class voters whose salvos at the so-called cultural elite often delight audiences at Republican rallies.”
The Washington Post: “When she was first introduced to the country as his running mate in late August, Palin provided a jolt of energy to the campaign, helping McCain consolidate restive conservatives and pull even with Obama in the weeks after the GOP convention. Obama has since opened a lead in most surveys, including a lead of 11 points in the most recent Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll, released Wednesday. But there is little sign that Palin has expanded her appeal beyond the GOP base, and she has been dogged by a steady of stream of politically damaging news, including the continuing investigation into her role in the firing of a state trooper in Alaska, her struggles in a series of network interviews and comments about ‘real America’ that she later apologized for. The latest controversy involves a report that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 on makeup consultations and clothes at high-end department stores such as Neiman Marcus and Saks in New York and St. Louis.”
"As her qualifications, her understanding of the vice presidency, and even her wardrobe came under renewed scrutiny yesterday, Sarah Palin told a high- profile conservative Christian leader that she isn't discouraged by the Republican ticket's sagging poll numbers because she and running mate John McCain have always been underdogs. 'I know at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4,' the GOP vice presidential nominee told James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family."
To People magazine, Palin defended how she's been portrayed. She insisted she is a "voracious reader" and that she is currently reading, "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11." "Asked about Tina Fey's impersonation of her as somewhat ditzy and 'bubble-headed' (on 'Saturday Night Live' last weekend, Fey as Palin did her fancy beauty pageant walk during a press conference), Palin replied, 'That's funny, I play her bubble-headed too when I imitate her.'"
