# 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:** 7
**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 8, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/121 "2008-11-08T17:04:35Z")
As that wonderful and intelligent Mika Brzezhinski keeps saying, how on earth can you people expect Palin to afford quality clothing on a governmental salary? She can’t be earning but a very low six figures as the governor of Alaska! It’s just so unfair to expect that that money will allow her to dress in anything but rags. It’s not as though she made a big deal about her just plain folks image during the campaign either–she clearly identified herself with the elites, who dress themselves like zillionaires and pay no attention to the price tags. It’s deeply offensive to ask her to dress like a person of the middle class when her educational background, her income tax bracket, and her sophisticated ways clearly place her in the very topmost of top drawers. What, are you all socialists or something? Palin should abide by Marx’s dictum “From each according to her ability to pay…”? Fuck the poor. Fuck the middle classes. The only ones who should get cool stuff for free are the rich, or maybe just the super-rich. That’s capitalism, baby!! ---
**Author:** ![geniios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@geniios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geniios)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/122 "2008-11-08T17:32:46Z")
And here we have the most rational statement I have seen on this thread. But I guess this thread is a good way to let those of you who are at crescendo peek of hatred for your American fellows that you continue to spew nastiness at a woman for daring to call Obama on anything in public. Realize of course she was doing the job they brought her in to do. Letting them dictate who you will be angry at in the aftermath is quite naive. > [@DSeid](#): > > Well the eating of their own is part of the dance that has begun for control of where the party goes from here and when. Now is when they can afford to do it most bloodily. Another two years and the knives get sheathed in favor of poison darts that are harder to trace. ---
**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 8, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/123 "2008-11-08T19:02:46Z")
What a load of crap. Palin is an opportunist? She’s a diva? This is the woman who sold off a private jet and flies commercial. Divas LIKE private jets. So do opportunists. She sold off the governor’s limousine and got rid of the private driver, and drives herself to work in a Volkswagen. If you’ve seen pictures of her in her own clothes, you’ll know that she doesn’t exactly buy high-end clothing. Her family still lives in Wasilla and she commutes to the big city, instead of living in a Governor’s mansion. The RNC had to buy Palin a wardrobe precisely because she’s NOT a Diva. Her own clothes just weren’t up for the kind of world in which people who come to your fundraising dinners are wearing $100,000 pearls and designer clothing. She would have looked like a schlub. And since she’s actually from the middle class and not wealthy like Hillary or Kay Bailey Hutchison or most other women in national politics, there was no way she could afford to buy the kinds of clothes she needed. So the RNC bought the clothes, and now she’s given them back or will be expected to pay for anything she keeps. I actually think that’s pretty tacky of the RNC. Do you have any idea how much money she raised for them? Millions. The least they could have done was let her keep those clothes and been gracious about it. And for people to attack her over this issue is just another example of how deranged people have become over Sarah Palin. By the way, public figures are loaned clothes all the time. A lot of the time they keep them. it’s to a fancy designer’s advantage to have the world know that the powerful wear his or her clothing. When you see a woman giving a national address, and there are $500,000 pearls around her neck, there’s a good chance that those belong to someone else. Hillary Clinton wore the ‘Kahn Canary’, a multi-million dollar diamond, and even had a special setting made for it, so she had it for a while. The people that really come off looking bad in all this are the ‘insiders’ who are attempting to trash her for their own reasons. Come to think of it, this might not be the fault of the RNC. They probably can’t let her keep those clothes, or it would be a campaign contribution and in violation of federal election laws. My guess is that the way this is usually done is that the RNC makes a ‘loan’ to get around campaign laws, and then never really goes to any trouble to get the ‘loaned’ material back, and the whole issue is quietly forgotten. In this case, enough noise has been made that they’ll probably have to take it all back and sell it for pennies on the dollar - maybe back to Palin. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/124 "2008-11-08T19:09:07Z")
I suspect that any clothes Palin actually wore could be auctioned off for dollars on the penny. ---
**Author:** ![geniios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@geniios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geniios)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/125 "2008-11-08T19:20:05Z")
I am pretty certain that she would not buy them for any price now… so the dollars on the penny auction looks like the way to go. They have no value in Alaskan lifestyle anyway. ---
**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 8, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/126 "2008-11-08T19:30:40Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > And since she’s actually from the middle class and not wealthy like Hillary or Kay Bailey Hutchison or most other women in national politics, there was no way she could afford to buy the kinds of clothes she needed. > [@Time Magazine](#): > > Sarah Palin and her husband have pieced together a uniquely Alaskan income that reached comfortably into six figures even before she became governor, capitalizing on valuable fishing rights, a series of land deals and a patchwork of other ventures to build an above-average lifestyle. > > Add up the couple’s 2007 income and the estimated value of their property and investments and they appear to be worth at least $1.2 million. [cite](http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846372,00.html) “not wealthy” my ass. ---
**Author:** ![vison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e47774/32.png) [@vison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vison)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/127 "2008-11-08T19:32:49Z")
Just a stupid screw up, IMHO. The RNC should have just said they were a gift to her and someone could have paid the taxes and that would have been the end of it. It was the ridiculous hypocrisy, all part and parcel of “presenting” Sarah Palin as being something she isn’t. I shudder to think, but I do think it, that had they left her alone to be herself, she might not have turned off so many people and might, right now, be Vice-President-elect. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/128 "2008-11-08T19:53:04Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > This is the woman who sold off a private jet and flies commercial. Divas LIKE private jets. So do opportunists. So does [Palin.](http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/22/1579781.aspx) Put down the Kool- Aid Sam. > [@](#): > > But after Palin’s sale of the state jet following her inauguration as governor, the document shows, she did not stop flying on state planes. Gov. Palin used her Public Safety department’s prop plane for 110 hours, or 19 percent of its flight time, in 2007 and 2008. The Department of Corrections used it 28 percent of the time, and Alaska Wildlife troopers also used it 28 percent of the time. A spokesman for the McCain Palin campaign defended the flights, saying the governor needed to use the state Public Safety plane because of the remote geography of Alaska. “For the governor to perform her duty visiting rural communities the use of an aircraft was necessary,” a campaign spokesman said. > [@](#): > > Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-profit budget watchdog group, says the chart is the first indication of how extensively Palin used the government’s plane–despite her frequent boasts about selling the state jet. > > “I would say the trouble the governor runs into is the fact that they used the selling of the plane on eBay as part of the reform story. She was trying to get great public relations without giving up flying around on a government plane,” Ashdown said. ---
**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 8, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/129 "2008-11-08T20:03:25Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Her family still lives in Wasilla and she commutes to the big city, instead of living in a Governor’s mansion. That way, she can charge a per diem for staying at home. > [@](#): > > The RNC had to buy Palin a wardrobe precisely because she’s NOT a Diva. Her own clothes just weren’t up for the kind of world in which people who come to your fundraising dinners are wearing $100,000 pearls and designer clothing. She would have looked like a schlub. Oh, puh-leeze. She was the governor of the state – she had a perfectly good professional-woman wardrobe already. You make it sound as if she was discovered out on the tundra garbed in moose pelts accessorized with wolf teeth. > [@](#): > > And since she’s actually from the middle class and not wealthy like Hillary or Kay Bailey Hutchison or most other women in national politics, there was no way she could afford to buy the kinds of clothes she needed. Behold the Republican who resorts to class-warfare rhetoric! > [@](#): > > So the RNC bought the clothes, and now she’s given them back or will be expected to pay for anything she keeps. I actually think that’s pretty tacky of the RNC. Campaign finance laws are such a drag. > [@](#): > > By the way, public figures are loaned clothes all the time. A lot of the time they keep them. it’s to a fancy designer’s advantage to have the world know that the powerful wear his or her clothing. Well, then, the RNC should have talked to one of those fancy designers and struck a deal. > [@](#): > > Come to think of it, this might not be the fault of the RNC. They probably can’t let her keep those clothes, or it would be a campaign contribution and in violation of federal election laws. My guess is that the way this is usually done is that the RNC makes a ‘loan’ to get around campaign laws, and then never really goes to any trouble to get the ‘loaned’ material back, and the whole issue is quietly forgotten. Bookmarked under “Sam Stone’s Admission That The RNC Routinely Circumvents The Law”. ---
**Author:** ![geniios](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@geniios](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geniios)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/130 "2008-11-08T20:07:40Z")
According to McCain unless you have at least 5 mil you are not wealthy. (liquidateable funds not assets) > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [cite](http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1846372,00.html) > > “not wealthy” my ass. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/131 "2008-11-08T20:45:51Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Campaign finance laws are such a drag. Especially campaign finance laws sponsored by, and named after, your running mate. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/132 "2008-11-08T21:04:16Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Is there video of this on youtube yet? I searched but didn’t find any. :mad: I am busy [del]forging[/del] [del]manufacturing[/del] preparing one for posting right now. Here’s some [vidcaps](http://xahlee.org/Periodic_dosage_dir/lacru/leda.html). ---
**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 8, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/133 "2008-11-08T21:08:51Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > She’s a diva? Uh, the people calling her a “diva,” and a “whack job” and some downright unflattering terms are your folks, Sam. Republicans. McCainites. You know, the salt of the earth: morons. That’s the way we like it. You tear each other up, and defend yourselves, while other tighty-righties are gnawing on your ankles. Tastes yum, don’t it? ---
**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 8, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/134 "2008-11-08T21:20:51Z")
Further, under “hoist with your own petard,” let’s examine, shall we, exactly why and how her clothing and her appearance generally became so prominent a subject in the campaign, so much so that this story has considerable legs: she was chosen by McCain because he wanted ink, lots of it, rivers of it, flowing non-stop, and immediately, and he figured the best way to get that would be to shine a spotlight on his VP, announcing her on the Friday after Obama’s nomination, and choosing a hot-looking young woman whose physical appearance certainly set tongues a-waggin’ (and McCain’s eyes a-wandering’) to a greater degree than with any other VP candidate in history. We never wondered where Fritz Mondale bought his suits because we never noticed that he was wearing one, or wearing one different from the one he always wore. And Mondale didn’t get the buzz that Palin did, precisely because zero attention was being paid–and rightly so–to how he looked, and what he wore, and all that crap. You were loving it when her appearance got your guys weeks of very favorable pub–this is the other side of that pub. Deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/135 "2008-11-08T21:52:16Z")
> [@askeptic](#): > > So does [Palin.](http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/10/22/1579781.aspx) > > Put down the Kool- Aid Sam. :smack: Are you actually posting this as a rebuttal to **Sam**? No this supports his argument. Anyone that knows even the slightest, smallest, tiniest bit about Alaska knows that people fly everywhere, and that she would have had to charter someone’s plane to do it, so she chartered the state’s plane. Good for her, I am glad she found a way to save money, as prop planes are much less expensive than jets. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/136 "2008-11-08T21:58:47Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > Uh, the people calling her a “diva,” and a “whack job” and some downright unflattering terms are your folks, Sam. Republicans. McCainites. You know, the salt of the earth: morons. > > That’s the way we like it. You tear each other up, and defend yourselves, while other tighty-righties are gnawing on your ankles. > > Tastes yum, don’t it? Considering **Sam** ’s from Canada, they wouldn’t be his people at all-nor would it be his tax dollars, or donations at stake here. :dubious: ---
**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 8, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/137 "2008-11-08T22:05:12Z")
I think it’s still safe to refer to tighty-righties as **Sam** ’s folks–ideology knows no national boundaries. (Neither does Palin, of course.) Where did I refer to tax dollars or donations? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/138 "2008-11-08T22:07:52Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Are you actually posting this as a rebuttal to Sam? Yes, it certainly is a rebuttal to **Sam** , as **Sam** was the one who said: > [@Sam Stone](#): > > This is the woman who sold off a private jet and flies commercial. She is not “flying commercial”, she’s still using a state plane. And, apparently, getting involved in some squabbles over it as well: > [@](#): > > Governor Sarah Palin used her state law-enforcement agency’s twin-engine plane to travel around Alaska, accounting for about 20 percent of its flying time, according to a document obtained by NBC News. The police plane is a King Air turboprop that is primarily used for police-related missions and search and rescue missions. […] > > Walt Monegan, in an interview with NBC earlier this month, said the plane was indeed a source of contention. “The governor would be upset if the plane was not at her disposal,” he said. “She would say, ‘I need the aircraft’ and it was at the shop.” > > John Glass, the current Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, says the plane-usage chart was prepared in response to requests by Sarah Palin’s office, after the plane often was not available. “The pie chart was made to show the usage of the airplane.” > > Glass said since the plane was old, it needed frequent maintenance. He said,“We provided the plane when it was available.” He says the plane is primarily intended for law enforcement missions. “The priority is for search and rescue or police related missions and when it is not being used for that it can be used for the governor.” […] > > Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a non-profit budget watchdog group, says the chart is the first indication of how extensively Palin used the government’s plane–despite her frequent boasts about selling the state jet. > > “I would say the trouble the governor runs into is the fact that they used the selling of the plane on eBay as part of the reform story. She was trying to get great public relations without giving up flying around on a government plane,” Ashdown said. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/139 "2008-11-08T22:37:43Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > I think it’s still safe to refer to tighty-righties as **Sam** ’s folks–ideology knows no national boundaries. (Neither does Palin, of course.) > > Where did I refer to tax dollars or donations? THAT part wasn’t directed at you, but at those who were saying that Sarah Palin had every right to spend so much on designer clothing and accessories for her entire family-when she knew damned well she wasn’t going to be able to keep it. I should have been a wee more clear, I appologize. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ManiacMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b782af/32.png) [@ManiacMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ManiacMan)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457/140 "2008-11-08T22:58:50Z")
What’s the big deal about Palin’s clothes? Honestly who really gives a fuck? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-when-is-palin-giving-back-all-the-clothes/471457.md?page=8)