# So when is Palin giving back all the clothes? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 6, 2008, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457 "2008-11-06T15:45:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/181 "2008-11-09T19:26:54Z")
You guys are amazing. I post actual video of her pulling a gill net (not recreational fishing), a story from her dad about her piloting their commercial fishing boat, and you just dismiss that as evidence. [here’s another photo of her on the boat with gill nets](http://www.powerlineblog.com/Palin_resize.preview-thumb.jpg) [Another photo of Palin pulling fish from a commercial drift net](http://www.fieldandstream.com/article_gallery/Sarah-Palin-Hunting-and-Fishing-Pics/5) [Another photo of Palin and her husband pulling in a drift net](http://stix1972.typepad.com/stix_blog/images/2008/08/30/todd_palin_the_gov_at_bristol_bay_d.jpg) [A photo of Palin in dirty commercial fishing gear, taken on the boat](http://beldar.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/29/palinbook127_2.jpg). At this point, if you want to believe she doesn’t do any of the commercial fishing itself, we’re going to have to revoke your membership in the ‘reality based community’. > [@](#): > > You realize, the deeper you go into this, providing evidence that she has genuinely worked as a commercial fisher, the more it looks like she was working a second job while on the public tit? I don’t happen to believe that you can actually show such a thing (“Aww, Todd took wifey along on a few trips, and she got up off her ass now and again!” is more like what probably happened) but if you can, be very careful about giving away free ammo. Man, you guys are really reaching. The season for the type of fishing the Palin’s have a license for lasts exactly four weeks. She can do that on summer vacation. There is clearly no law against it, as Palin’s commercial fishing activities are well known and publicized in Alaska. It’s one of the things that make her popular, because she’s seen as a ‘true Alaskan’. That’s also why the family itself has to pitch in and do the fishing. When you have a small operation like that, and you’ve got exactly four weeks to catch as much fish as you can, everybody jumps in and helps. It’s very lucrative, but you have to work fast and hired help in the four week season is absurdly expensive and probably not feasible for a small family fishing operation. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/182 "2008-11-09T19:36:12Z")
We seem to have drifted away from the original question of the thread… ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/183 "2008-11-09T19:46:06Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > The season for the type of fishing the Palin’s have a license for lasts exactly four weeks. She can do that on summer vacation. Oh, okay, thanks for the info. Then I was wrong in inferring that she might just have gone fishing with her dad that day for fun. But if so, then I think it was a little misleading for you to say: > [@Sam Stone](#): > > the ‘Diva’ spends a lot of time in the summer with her husband commercial fishing, which is an incredibly difficult job. Um, no, if she’s just putting in some part of her summer vacation, over a period that’s at most four weeks long, helping out her husband with the family business, then she’s not in fact spending “a lot of time” on this commercial fishing job. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/184 "2008-11-09T19:47:17Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > We seem to have drifted away from the original question of the thread… It sounds like the clothes may be headed to Palin’s favorite thrift store: > [@](#): > > The Republican National Committee announced the name of the charity that will be receiving the $150,000 in clothing purchased for Governor Sarah Palin’s vice president campaign. > > “After looking at many worthy charities, from women’s centers to the Salvation Army, we have decided to give the entire wardrobe to the Wasilla Chapter of the Hockey Moms Association of America,” said RNC spokesperson Bob Martin. [http://newsminer.com/news/2008/nov/09/untold-stories-election-week/](http://newsminer.com/news/2008/nov/09/untold-stories-election-week/) However, there’s been nothing further on the fate of that RNC lawyer who headed to Alaska to actually get the clothes. Maybe his plane went down? ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/185 "2008-11-09T19:58:56Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > That’s also why the family itself has to pitch in and do the fishing. When you have a small operation like that, and you’ve got exactly four weeks to catch as much fish as you can, everybody jumps in and helps. It’s **very lucrative** , but you have to work fast and hired help in the four week season is absurdly expensive and probably not feasible for a small family fishing operation. Bolding mine. According to her tax returns in the past two years the Palins have averaged aroun $11K a year from their fishing endeavors. It’s not chump change, but I wouldn’t call it “very lucrative.” Of course, it has exactly nothing to do with the subject of the thread–the Palins’ wardrobes, for those of you trying to follow along at home–and precious little to do with the “are the Palins wealthy” hijack. If you just want to **bricker** and argue about fishing then that’s fine, but a thread about clothes hardly seems the appropriate place for it. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/186 "2008-11-09T20:00:28Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Oh, okay, thanks for the info. Then I was wrong in inferring that she might just have gone fishing with her dad that day for fun. > > But if so, then I think it was a little misleading for you to say: > > Um, no, if she’s just putting in some part of her summer vacation, over a period that’s at most four weeks long, helping out her husband with the family business, then she’s not in fact spending “a lot of time” on this commercial fishing job. A month of commercial fishing is not ‘a lot of time in the summer’? You try it. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/187 "2008-11-09T20:05:15Z")
> [@Tenebras](#): > > Bolding mine. > > According to her tax returns in the past two years the Palins have averaged aroun $11K a year from their fishing endeavors. It’s not chump change, but I wouldn’t call it “very lucrative.” Of course, it has exactly nothing to do with the subject of the thread–the Palins’ wardrobes, for those of you trying to follow along at home–and precious little to do with the “are the Palins wealthy” hijack. If you just want to **bricker** and argue about fishing then that’s fine, but a thread about clothes hardly seems the appropriate place for it. 11K for one month’s work is ‘very lucrative’ in my book. It certainly is for someone who only earned $61K a year as a mayor. In any event, the amount obviously fluctuates with the season. In this [Time Magazine](http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846372,00.html) analysis of their income, it says the Palins made $46,000 last year from fishing. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/188 "2008-11-09T20:05:30Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > It sounds like the clothes may be headed to Palin’s favorite thrift store: > [http://newsminer.com/news/2008/nov/09/untold-stories-election-week/](http://newsminer.com/news/2008/nov/09/untold-stories-election-week/) > > However, there’s been nothing further on the fate of that RNC lawyer who headed to Alaska to actually get the clothes. Maybe his plane went down? Just for the record, the linked article is a joke. So… we probably don’t have to argue about whether or not it’s a sound decision. ---
**Author:** ![Tenebras](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@Tenebras](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenebras)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/189 "2008-11-09T20:20:57Z")
And their actual tax returns say they made between 7 and 15 thousand dollars. The Time article went to press before the tax forms were released. It doesn’t actually matter, though, because it has nothing to do with her clothes. The parent hijack to the fishing hijack is the “are the Palins wealthy” hijack. Insofar as the fishing business has anything to with _that_ hijack, you are either arguing that the Palins are not wealthy–ignoring the fact that their income is somewhere around $160K per year, plus the “very lucrative” fishing business–or that they are wealthy but it doesn’t matter because they worked hard for it. There is of course the possibility of a third argument, but I’m not going to waste too much time thinking of one because… none of this actually matters. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/190 "2008-11-09T20:30:28Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > 11K for one month’s work is ‘very lucrative’ in my book. It certainly is for someone who only earned $61K a year as a mayor. > > In any event, the amount obviously fluctuates with the season. In this [Time Magazine](http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846372,00.html) analysis of their income, it says the Palins made $46,000 last year from fishing. OK, as long as you volunteer to pass out the ammo, let’s go: the job of Mayor is so un-demanding of executive skills that she can take a month off in the summer, in addition to any other time off she took during the year? List a few comparable politicial positions that have that amount of time away from the office. NOT vacation times, mind you, where an executive might need some R and R, but comparable positions where an executive earns big bucks working very hard at a demanding positions completely removed from her political position. If you can, do so without admitting that the experience of serving asf Mayor of Wasilla is in no way rigorous or complex enough to count as training for President of the US. Good luck with that. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/191 "2008-11-09T20:44:52Z")
Ok, I will concede that at some point in the past it is likely that Sarah Palin actually worked in her husband’s commercial fishing operation. Note that it is his, not theirs: he is listed as the sole proprietor. That doesn’t change the fact that the family is wealthy beyond the vast majority of Americans, nor does it change the fact that they need to give the clothes back or acknowledge it as income on their next tax filing. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/192 "2008-11-09T21:05:13Z")
**Sam Stone** This **Snowboarder Bo** fella is clearly uninterested in facts. Why it’s important to disbelieve something that is common knowledge, I cannot fathom, but hey. I like the sexism here. “Her Husband’s Commercial Fishing Operation.”, it’s not her husband’s operation, it’s the FAMILY operation. Jeez, smear Palin for things that are actually true. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/193 "2008-11-09T21:18:24Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > That’s also why the family itself has to pitch in and do the fishing. When you have a small operation like that, and you’ve got exactly four weeks to catch as much fish as you can, everybody jumps in and helps. It’s very lucrative, but you have to work fast and hired help in the four week season is absurdly expensive and probably not feasible for a small family fishing operation. So it’s a “very lucrative” business, but it’s just too “absurdly expensive” to hire professional help, so people, naturally, have to get their family members to pitch in, even those family members who already hold a full-time governmental position? Have I got that right? I think I’m starting to see where some of that “waste and corruption” Palin was going on about in Alaska might be… ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/194 "2008-11-09T21:21:47Z")
And did we ever clear up exactly when she’s giving back the clothes? I mean, this is fun and all, discussing how she rips off the taxpayers she’s so eager to protect, but it is kind of a diversion. The RNC claimed with extreme self-righteousness that those clothes were going to be donated to charity when the campaign was over. Is the campaign over yet? Please notify me when it reaches some kind of termination, by Republican standards. Tick, tick, tick… ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/195 "2008-11-09T21:23:10Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > At this point, if you want to believe she doesn’t do any of the commercial fishing itself, we’re going to have to revoke your membership in the ‘reality based community’. In that case, I’m bewildered. Really. The campaign could have made tremendous headway in reinforcing her “just plain folks” image with this. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/196 "2008-11-09T21:23:32Z")
I am quite familiar with commercial fishing and while I am certainly no fan of Sarah Palin, anything but, I think this whole argument is off base. Sam Stone is right. It is a small operation. Quite small, actually. The Palins may not be poor, but their net worth doesn’t make them rich. Comfortable? I think I’ll go with comfortable. And if the money earned from fishing has helped them get comfortable, they worked bloody hard to get there. Anyone who’s ever been out on a small commercial fishing vessel knows what it means. And I guess the corollary is no one else has a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/197 "2008-11-09T21:31:25Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > **Sam Stone** This **Snowboarder Bo** fella is clearly uninterested in facts. The hell? Sam has dodged the revenue issue – sure, they’re commercial fishermen, just like Al Gore’s father was a farmer. But $11K per year is something other than making your living in field. Kimstu has provided objective evidence: the Palins are a high net worth family. I don’t begrudge them this, hardly. But methinks somebody in that income range can afford their own clothing. But don’t believe me. Campaign insiders wanted Palin to buy 3 outfits for the convention and 3 outfits for the stumps, with a maximum RNC outlay in the $25,000 - $35,000 range. Currently, the estimates are pushing $200,000. There was nothing about outfitting the entire family. Then again, these reports are from unnamed sources, albeit ones “[familiar with the campaign’s internal discussions](http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-palin6-2008nov06,0,1115431.story?track=ntothtml)”, so we should suspend some judgment pending investigation (h/t **JThunder** ). But _should_ there be an internal audit and investigation? Oh yes. And the Republican National Committee agrees with me, or claims to. ## Obey the law, Ms. Palin. Let me repeat my stance on Palin. I think she has a terrific skillset. I suspect that she’s also a little dumb in an academic sense, but I might be wrong. I am confident that she’s currently wholly unqualified for the Presidency. But I would bet that she could make a mint on the rubber chicken circuit, all the power to her. Hey, Guilliani did that for years. I even believe that Hollywood should be interested. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/198 "2008-11-09T21:45:16Z")
> [@Sam Stone](#): > > A month of commercial fishing is not ‘a lot of time in the summer’? Whoa, you mean she gets the **entire** four weeks off from her job as mayor or governor every summer, so she can put in the whole time fishing? Plus the usual holidays and personal days at other times? Pretty sweet deal! Well yeah, if that’s true, then she does “spend a lot of time” on the fishing gig, but I can’t say I feel too sorry for her! I swear, these unionized blue-collar rig workers with their high wages and these government employees with their generous vacation packages are the folks who’ve got it made. Here I’ve been a good little industrious cog in the famed engine of capitalism, working for private firms and institutions with no union, and I’ve never earned as much as Todd Palin **or** got as much paid vacation as Sarah Palin! (Well, I did get that much vacation when I was working in the Netherlands, but that’s because Dutch law mandates it.) Time to mobilize the masses for some better labor laws, I guess! ---
**Author:** ![BMax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bmax/32/4267_2.png) [@BMax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMax)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/199 "2008-11-09T21:51:37Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > It sounds like the clothes may be headed to Palin’s favorite thrift store: > [http://newsminer.com/news/2008/nov/09/untold-stories-election-week/](http://newsminer.com/news/2008/nov/09/untold-stories-election-week/) > > However, there’s been nothing further on the fate of that RNC lawyer who headed to Alaska to actually get the clothes. Maybe his plane went down? > [@](#): > > The Republican National Committee announced the name of the charity that will be receiving the $150,000 in clothing purchased for Governor Sarah Palin’s vice president campaign. > > “After looking at many worthy charities, from women’s centers to the Salvation Army, we have decided to give the entire wardrobe to the Wasilla Chapter of the Hockey Moms Association of America,” said RNC spokesperson Bob Martin. I never heard of this **“Hockey Moms Association of America”**. Outside of the linked page, there’s nothng on it in Google either. Who wants to bet me paychecks that this isn’t some sham charity that Sarah Palin made up on the spur of the moment? And that she’s the president of said Wassila chapter, and as such will donate all the clothes to a needy family, like, say… a local family with five kids, the youngest in diapers and their first grandbaby on the way? I bet those clothes never leave the Palin famly closets except on the backs of the Palins. And Todd’s reported $40,000 worth of recreational items? Some might become Christmas gifts, but I bet they’ll keep the majority of them too. This is just more of the same, crooked republican politicians getting around the law, because the law is for governing those who can’t figure out how to get around it and the law serves those in power. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/200 "2008-11-09T21:59:13Z")
**BMax** , sweetie, did you just get whooshed, or did I? I mean, “Hockey Moms Association of America”? Record-breaking Kleenex sales? Dallas Mavericks changing their name to Dallas Change? Sounds like the writer of that article was just a littttle careless with their fact checking… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457.md?page=11)