Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Yep. The GOP can relate

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to Joe six-pack and Joe Plumber etc alright.

The GOP has spent over $150,000 on Sarah Palin's wardrobe, makeup and other campaign accessories.

And of course, McCain has an estimated net worth of $25-38 million and owns a dozen houses and cars and such.

Whereas a candidate on a supposedly elitist, out-of touch, ticket---Joe Biden---has an estimated net worth of $100000-$150000 after 36 years in the Senate.

Yet, tens of millions of middle/working class people will go and vote for the GOP even though its policies have steadily and surely destroyed the standard of living of the middle/working class people.

That is the magic of Republican Jesus cloaked in the American flag and carrying an assault weapon.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

...and in other news, whole trains of camels are streaming through the eye of a needle.....

Anonymoustache said...

Bikemonkey,
Brilliant!
I think we should rename the GOP the Eye-Of-The-Needle Caravan.

Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde said...

It's funny, ever since the Palins burst on the scene, I've been marveling at how well outfitted every last one of them is. Bristol has the cutest maternity clothes, Sarah is wearing very well-fitted clothing with distinct style (I was totally lusting for her red debate shoes), and even the boys look good.

I'm slightly surprised by the total amount, but honestly not that much. I worked for a little while in the office of a famous person, and what you find (if you are in charge of entering credit card bills) is that they
(a) don't have time to go clothes shopping
(b) would get mobbed by people if they did
(c) need to look good every single day.

As a result, their staff buys them a fuckload of clothing, often repeats in a variety of sizes, and then periodically makes massive returns. Think of it as bringing the store to the person.

So assume, say, that "only" $30K of that stuff was going to be kept (as opposed to returned unworn b/c wrong size, Sarah didn't like it, whatever). Maybe $20K of that for Sarah's umpteen outfits and $10K for the kids + Todd? That would be quite reasonable.

I loathe her as much as the next person, but I don't think this is a real issue.

Anonymoustache said...

I couldn't disagree with you more Dr.J. Firstly, the GOP issued no such explanation --which they would have if it were true, just to make it seem like a non-issue. All they said that the clothes would be later donated to charity. And isn't that really nice of them? 'Cos what people in homeless shelters need is not cash or help for many but rather an assortment of $5000 outfits and $1000 Prada pumps for a few.
Secondly, the GOP couldn't have been more insistent on portraying Palin as an ordinary person. Ordinary people do not spend $150K in clothes+accs over 2 months. Thirdly, I think she may have had a pretty fucking decent wardrobe already, being the governor of Alaska and all.
My point here concerns their hypocrisy. I don't care how much anyone spends on anything---I don't agree with excess but I really don't care. I do care, however, when people who constantly preach to others (and try to regulate, by law, the choices and actions of others so as to fit their morality and sense of values) constantly behave in a manner inconsistent with their manufactured image/preaching.
The people who trivialize Hollywood/celebs when celebs speak out against them have no problem acting like spoiled celebs themselves all the time. I do think that is an issue that should be brought to the table repeatedly.
This 'family values' 'ordinary woman' has a teenaged daughter who's pregnant out of wedlock and has a spotty attendance record at school, a son who is a high-school dropout, a son-in-law-to-be who just dropped out of school. This 'hockey mom' gave birth to a special needs child and went back to work THREE days later (running away from life much?). She appears to be a psychopath with an enormous sense of entitlement. So yeah, if the GOP dropped a $150K on threads for her, I think it is a valid issue to make a point about who this person is and what this party is.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree with you more. Me and DrMrA were talking about this just last night. Let's put this in perspective...

150,000$ is the price of a reasonable house in many parts of this country (not NYC, SF, or boston... but many other parts).

150,000$ is enough to put a child through three years at an Ivy league school.

150,000$ is enough to put ALL FIVE of her kids through college at the institution of higher learning where I am employed.

150,000$ is one hell of a lot of money.

And, I get dressing the candidate (but really- 150K is totally over the top) and perhaps her spouse- but the KIDS??? And are they seriously planning to take the kids clothes away from the kids and give them to charity??? Who are we kidding here.

Anonymoustache said...

drdrA,
Good perspective on the money. Agreed totally.

Also, in my comment I didn't even go into the whole aspect of how the GOPers constantly try and portray Obama as an elitist. Another reason why their hypocrisy must be pointed out and slammed.

Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde said...

Well, I just hope you were this het up about John Edwards' $400 haircuts. (And perhaps you were...I didn't "know" you then :)

People are extraordinarily harsh on women in the public sphere with so much as a hair out of place. Remember Hillary's "cleavage" for chrissakes? Or McCain's nasty jokes about teenage Chelsea and Janet Reno? Can you imagine if the hick from Alaska showed up in frump clothes (and no, she was NOT fit for national publicity in her Governor's wardrobe...there are pictures....)? Her bad taste would become the topic of soo many conversations.

Of course, for Sarah it's a more damning news item than it would have been for Hillary, because the meme about Sarah is that she's style over substance...which is exactly what the news reflects. So it reinforces that idea.

But I disagree that it is more damaging for the GOP than it would be for the Dems. Again, Edwards' haircut. It was especially bad because Edwards had spent so much time railing against the big people, and allying himself with the blue-collars. Both parties try to disown the "elite" mantle, even when both presidential candidates went to Yale (not this election!)

Mostly, I think this news item speaks to the disorganization of the McCain campaign. For all we know our money is buying Jill Biden some shoes, but the Obama campaign does a nice job of having its shit together so nobody realizes. And since we're electing "having your shit together," these little news items matter in terms of the picture they create of the campaign.

I'm not reading anything into what the GOP says about this. That entire campaign doesn't know up from down right now.

As a final and fairly irrelevant point, I would assume that they would auction off the clothes and donate the money to charity. (Or at least that that's their plan now that they've been caught.) Even the GOP is unlikely to be boneheaded enough to give couture to street people.

Anonymoustache said...

Good points, Dr.J.
I didn't think the Edwards news was good when it broke---I thought it was injudicious of him.
I think the extent of spending does matter. I have no doubt that our money is buying Jill Biden shoes (and to a reasonable extent I don't havea problem with that)---I'd just be a bit pissed if they were spending as much, in two months, as Joe Biden's net worth after 36 years in the Senate. That is all.
As for what the story reflects, I agree that it reflects on the overall ineptitude of the GOP campaign. But I also happen to believe that if this story hadn't broken Palin wasn't giving anything to charity. As we can see from her record, she and her family are grifters of the first order. So there is a hypocrisy and moral turpitude attached to that ticket that needs to be discussed in the context of a larger pattern of behavior.