Many people are talking about Gov. Sarah Palin’s $150,000 shopping spree even though it is completely irrelevant to the serious issues we face today and a sad waste of time. Since people are talking about it anyway, can we at least do something positive?
Sen. John McCain explained the shopping spree by saying, “She needed clothes.” While I doubt she “needed” clothes, there are many people in America today that do need help buying clothes. Almost 10% of the American population needed food stamps in July. Sen. McCain, more than 29 million Americans are so poor that they need help buying food.
America can use this silly fascination with Gov. Palin’s wardrobe as an opportunity to help some of our neighbors. When George Bush started to attack our freedom to decide what is good for our bodies, Patt Morrison developed an ingenious plan: donate to Planned Parenthood in George Bush’s name. So, with a nod to Ms. Morrison, I suggest that everyone immediately donate your extra clothes to charity and ask the charity to send a thank you note to Sen. McCain. Real Simple magazine has a nice list of charities, and you can even donate old bridesmaid dresses.
Sen. McCain, I hope you can find a way to show that you know that Gov. Palin does not “need” more clothes but that millions of working poor Americans do have serious needs. Will you consider matching all of the donations made in your name?
Palin is campaigning as the everyma- er, person. She is claiming that she has street cred. She’s one of us. $150,000 in ONE shopping trip for clothes isn’t insignificant. That’s more than our HOUSE is worth (after remodeling) for crying out loud! That’s 30 times the blue book value of our car! 30 TIMES! For clothes! That’s a telling factoid. While it may not be the pinnacle of journalistic integrity, I’d hardly call it a “sad waste of time.”
I agree that she is being hypocritical, but I don’t think that analyzing this particular hypocrisy is useful. Her claims of transparency while limiting press access and stifling the Troopergate investigation are much more relevant. Her lack of knowledge is more important than shopping. Her views on abortion or energy development or management or NATO or poverty or education or the role of religion in government are all more important. We only have 11 days until the election. I would rather that people discover her complete lack of intellectual curiosity than discover her hypocrisy.
Ah, but it is easy to dismiss many of those things as having been twisted or spun in various directions until it little resembles truth and is nothing more than propoganda (as we’ve witnessed already). That dollar amount is hard to spin, and, because it was funded by the RNC, is easily verifiable.
However, the shopping spree has greater importance than merely being verifiable and hypocritical. What is most telling about the spree (spent not only for her, but for the whole family, btw) is that no one thought it was a bad idea! It’s one of those events that everyone who hears about it says, “what the hell were they thinking?” But the people in question are so far removed from the pulse of America that not one person in the Republican beurocracy (and it took a lot of people to swing that much money, I assure you) thought, “hey, is this sending the right message, especially given the financial situation Americans currently find themselves in?”
This event is a simple and elegant example of just how far removed these people are from their voter base, not to mention the stunning glimps at their sense of fairness and morality, or lack thereof. Again, they didn’t even think enough of it to try and cover it up or hide the numbers, which, while dispicable, would at least show that they KNOW that it would look bad to get caught buying clothes that cost as much as a freakin’ HOUSE.