So when is Palin giving back all the clothes?

The BBQ Pit
261

“Plucked”? “Thrust”? You make it sound like the poor woman was shanghaied at gunpoint, for heaven’s sake. She could have turned them down if she wanted to. And if she felt she had “little preparation” for the role of VP candidate, then isn’t that what she ought to have done?

And whose fault was it that she had “little preparation” for being on the world stage in the first place? If she had serious ambitions for a national political career, shouldn’t she have started long ago preparing to give better interviews, learn more about world politics, and present herself more competently to an audience outside her Alaskan and fundamentalist base? If she didn’t have those ambitions, wasn’t it rather reckless and opportunist of her to jump at a job she wasn’t ready for?

Face it, there are lots of wonderful people out there with remarkable careers and life stories who are nonetheless not good choices for VP of the United States. Sarah Palin might be a terrific Lifetime Television Movie heroine, but that doesn’t automatically make her a competent national leader.

In the first place, how can you be sure that she “did her best” for the campaign? How do you know she wasn’t trying to work the situation more to her own advantage than McCain’s, as some campaign staffers have accused her of doing? There is no conclusive evidence on either side.

In the second place, her activities for the campaign included some pretty nasty negative campaigning against her opponents. Why should we admire her for that?

Bullshit. The press was very positive towards her at first, ballyhooing her fresh perspective and her moose-gutting abilities and all of her appealing characteristics. When the campaign tried to keep her shielded from the press, and when she turned out to be less than effective in her actual encounters with the press, that’s when the glow faded.

The McCain campaign deliberately exploited the “young and sexy” meme to boost Palin’s appeal. Surprise surprise, sexy young celebrities tend to attract cruel and unsavory speculations about their sex lives. If they had wanted Palin evaluated on her merits as a serious political thinker, they shouldn’t have been marketing her on her personal appeal.

Pooh. She was complaining about the media all the time, and she’s been the reverse of gracious about the sources of the allegations against her. “I I like being able to answer tough questions without the filter of the mainstream media telling the American people what they just heard”? “It’s like, man, no matter what you say, you are going to get clobbered […] So I guess I have to apologize for being a bit annoyed, but that’s also an indication of being outside the Washington elite, outside of the media elite also. I just wanted to talk to Americans without the filter and let them know what we stand for”? “You know, as long as reporters will choose to, now a’days – it doesn’t seem like it had been practiced in the past but now a’days – report based on false allegations coming from anonymous sources, it’s kinda impossible to respond to false allegations”? “That’s cruel and it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, it’s unprofessional, and those guys are jerks, if they came away with it taking things out of context and then tried to spread something on national news. It is not fair and not right”? “For the most part, absolutely, media persons, reporters, have been absolutely right on and there has been fairness and objectivity…There have been some stinkers, though, who have kind of made the whole basket full of apples, once in a while, smell kind of bad”?

Whine, whine, whine. Now mind you, I think Palin is well within her rights to complain in public if she wants to, and if someone really is deliberately spreading lies about her, she has every right to be pissed off about it. But you certainly can’t claim that she’s “taking it all with good grace”.

Meanwhile Obama was being called a Marxist and a terrorist and an America-hater and a secret Muslim and so forth, not to mention even worse things in the gutter press. Accused of “palling around with terrorists”, accused of interfering in Kenyan politics, accused of trying to shut his own grandmother’s mouth to hide questions about his citizenship status, for heaven’s sake.

That’s the sort of crap you sign up for when you play national politics. I don’t condone it, but I don’t think Palin in particular is entitled to more sympathy about it than any other politician.

262

It would be a $5000 suit, and there’s actually not that much evidence that it even existed. The AP talked to the proprietor of the shop that it was supposedly bought from, and there was no record of such a purchase. Also, the type of clothes that the store sells are completely inappropriate for campaigning.

As I said upthread, I don’t actually believe that the purchase was for men’s clothes. The address doesn’t match, but it does match the address of the Atelier Designers fashion show, held that same week, where they were selling expensive women’s clothing.

But adding another $5000 onto the total for Sarah Palin’s swag isn’t as shocking as adding $5000 of Todd Palin swag.

263

Tenebras, what exactly are you suggesting or implying about the suit? I’m confused.

264

There is also the possibility that staffers were stealing from the campaign - buying things on expense accounts, billing them as clothing for the Palin family, and putting those suits, shoes, and purses in their own closets at home.

If this is the case, than the GOP has a different sort of issue (the incompetence one) and if I were the GOP, I’d sure want to find out which staffers were stealing from me. And I find it disturbing that they are willing to ignore this level of fraud.

I suspect that at least SOME of this was that.

265

I’m suggesting that there is no $4902 suit from Atelier. The place that the suit supposedly comes from is Atelier New York. This is a high end, super trendy men’s fashion shop. In the AP article about the clothes purchases, the reporter says that the owner of this shop was contacted about the purchase. The owner could not find any record of a purchase for that amount. There was a purchase of a similar amount, but the owner knew the person who made it personally, and he was a long-time customer and not likely to be affiliated with the campaign.

If you look at the address listed for the $4902 purchase from Atelier, it comes from 7th and 47, in New York City. The address of Atelier New York is 125 Crosby St, a different part of town.

So what is at 7th and 47th in New York? The Doubletree Hotel. And on the weekend of the 13-15 of September, there was a women’s fashion show there. The name of the show is the Atelier Design Fashion Show.

What I’m suggesting is that the reporters looked at the wrong place. They assumed that the $4902 purchase came from the store Atelier, when it actually came from the fashion show Atelier. We know that the campaign was buying Sarah Palin lots of high end clothes, so this would not be extraordinary. The alternate explanation is that the campaign filed false expense reports which just happened to list the address of the Doubletree Hotel.

266

Palin sorts clothes to see what belongs to the RNC

Sarah’s dad:

The lawyers:

Oops, $50,000 in clothes that don’t fit! :wink:

267

This just gets better and better. Now she bought (or someone bought) expensive clothes that don’t fit? So we have incompetent fraud or unethical behavior? Sorry, but if you’re going to steal, please be GOOD at it. (plus there is this: when you know something doesn’t belong to you–that is, it’s on loan, don’t you want to treat it with more care? Guess not).
And how and why are her kids losing underwear? (I’ll be classy and not post one Bristol joke). I’ve taken 3 kids to Europe and back, among other trips–no lost underwear. No lost glasses, socks or retainers. WTH? And can you lose 150K of undies? :eek:

I find this rehabbing of Palin fascinating; this is a woman who has more tortured syntax than George W Bush–a remarkable achievement. She cannot speak clear thoughts; she does not think on her feet well; she does not engage in dialogue, but spouts talking points. I do not see a nimble, curious mind behind those trendy glasses. I see someone who got lucky (much like Jesse Ventura got lucky) and she could not handle the national stage.

268

Seems like if the plan all along was to give 'em back or donate to charity then someone would ya know maybe keep track of 'em, you betcha, by golly…

Sounds to me like somebody got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

269

Or, even more to the point: why are her kids losing underwear that was paid for by the RNC?

One could argue that they had to buy Sarah Palin underwear because VPL in a VPC is just unacceptable. But is this really such a problem for the children that they had to buy them new underwear? Also, do charities typically accept used children’s underwear for donation? I’ve never been in the market for second hand underoos, so I really can’t say for myself.

270

Oh c’mon. Odds are some lackies went shopping for her and got stuff that didn’t fit quite right even though it was listed as the right size.

271

That’s how I read it, as well. They probably went and bought shoes in her size, and also plus and minus a half-size in case the particular brand ran large or small. This especially goes for the stuff they bought at the very beginning when she wasn’t around.

Not, of course, that they should have bought her any clothes at all.

272

I would even grant them that some clothes purchases were in order (though when you hear of the people providing the funds gagging on hearing the total, it’s clear that some boundary was exceeded).

But when you reach the point of buying your kids underwear on the RNC tab, the only possible scenario is that Palin was gleefully milking the opportunity to irresponsibly spend other people’s money. I repeat, that is the only possible scenario.

273

This bears repeating. I can’t imagine any good reason why the RNC should be buying Palin’s kids’ underwear. Further, I can’t imagine any reasonable person, when faced with the fact that these were loans and to be returned in due course-emphatically NOT palin’s property, would think it’s OK to buy things that couldn’t possibly be returned or sold once used. (and this is worse than things that were used up by use-here, there isn’t any possible solution other than SP keeps them–they’re of less than zero value to anyone else (Who’d have to dispose of them).

274

That’s the part I’m not understanding. If Palin can’t afford to buy undies for her kids, then we’re talking about a sad charity case, not someone who should have been running for high office.

And who the hell would want second-hand children’s underwear anyway? They don’t even sell used underwear at the Goodwill I go to. Maybe Sarah panties have some celebrity cache attached to them, but Piper panties? I can just hear it now…

Little Girl: Mommy! I want to wear my big girl panties!
Mother: OK. But don’t put on the Piper panties. Those are for special occassions.

275

I just used my superhuman restraint and didn’t post a joke about Rich Lowry and the Piper Panties.

276

Makes sense – they both have gun cartidge casings to trade in getting lucky.

277

Must have been hats – hard to fit when head size keeps changing.

278

Well, how difficult can it be to sort out the new designer clothes from those Sarah purchased at the consignment shop in Wasilla? I live in blue jeans and hawaiian shirts but I bet I could do it with nary a miss.

On the other hand I think Grandad’s comment on the kids missing underwear was hyperbole. I hope.

279

Would a joke about Japanese vending machines be inappropriate?

280

OH boo hoo. Cry me a river.

:rolleyes:

The point is, the entire McCain campaign was truly hateful as far as the Obama campaign went, and to say, “Oh, leave poor widdle Sarah alone?” Please.