TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Look! The Empress Is Wearing New Clothes

ADVERTISEMENT

Daniel Ruth

druth@tampatrib.com

Published: October 28, 2008

Updated: 10/28/2008 12:56 am

Whew, if this sackcloth and ashes tour had gone on much longer, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin would have shown up for her Tampa visit looking like Edith Bunker meets Ma Joad to try to convince everyone of her K-Mart blue light special tastes.

Well, with only seven days left in the campaign, it's entirely possible by the time we get to next Tuesday, Palin will be campaigning in a housecoat and slippers with curlers in her hair in a craven attempt to suck up to the mythical Joe Sixpack crowd.

It was probably just a teensy hint during her Sunday stop in Tampa that Palin, the GOP's answer to "What Not To Wear," was in something of a crisis management mode when she enlisted the help of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, who makes Britney Spears look like Sandra Day O'Conner, to introduce the Alaska governor.

Hasselbeck is one of the chattering panelists on "The Spew," which offers all the intellectual stimulation of the Three Stooges eying a table filled with cream pies.

Donna Karan!

Palin has found herself in something of a pickle in recent days over the appearance that when George Bush told America to go shopping as a form of patriotism, the governor stood up, saluted and said: "Give me liberty, or give me Donna Karan!"

For it seems the governor has been the beneficiary of some $150,000 in clothing and makeover sessions, courtesy of the Republican National Committee, which spent $49,425 on clothing at Saks Fifth Avenue, another $75,000 on duds from Neiman-Marcus and as much as $44,716 on makeup and hairstyling.

Now there was a: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for Versace," moment for you.

You know, when people are losing their jobs, their homes, their futures in this economy, it certainly didn't look good for a vice presidential candidate to be glomming onto so many high-end goodies, courtesy of her party's contributors, that by comparison Paris Hilton looks downright parsimonious.

Horror Couture

It's sorta hard to maintain that "common touch"/Target/ hockey mom image when your hair stylist is making more money off your campaign than your foreign policy adviser.

And that probably explains the presence of Hasselbeck in Tampa on Sunday, who attacked as "deliberately sexist" critics of Palin's horror couture excesses for having the audacity to notice the emperor most certainly was wearing clothes.

It is hardly "sexist" to take note of an egregious abuse of $150,000 in campaign funds to help gussy up a candidate, as markets and lives crash.

For her part, during her Tampa appearance Palin raised the "Maverick Wears Prada" issue by insisting she's really a consignment shop kinda gal, who wears a modest $35 wedding ring.

As the "American Express - First!" debacle began to gain traction, John McCain pleaded that tut-tut, this was much ado about Nordstroms, promising that just as soon as the campaign ended, Palin's rags would be given to charity.

No doubt if you are out of work, or living out of your car, or getting by on food stamps, Sarah Palin's only slightly used Fendi frocks will be an enormous comfort.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT