What Not To Wear: Special Vice Presidential Candidate Edition

Today on TLC: What Not To Wear features Stacy London and Clinton Kelly with a very special challenge. She is a former beauty contest contestant, mayor, and currently governor of Alaska but she has nothing to wear out on the campaign trail. This is the challenge they faced with Sarah Palin.

On today’s show, Stacy and Clinton did something never done before on What Not To Wear. They performed a make over not only on Sarah but on her entire family, including those kids who never seem to go to school:

In just a few days, Stacy and Clinton had to transform the Palin family into a family who is acceptable on a major party ticket. (Transformation of right wing extremist beliefs and elimination of past associations with secessionists not included.) Stacy and Clinton faced an additional challenge. They needed to maintain Sarah’s connection to the real America, going shopping as Joe Six Pack would, avoiding acting like a latte drinking liberal elitist.

With a budget of only $150,000 (supplied by the Republican National Committee) the Palin family took shopping tripsĀ  to Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, including spending $75,062.63 on one shopping spree in early September. They also received clothes from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for $49,425.74. A shot gun to accessorize an upcoming family wedding was also purchased at an undisclosed price.

After Stacy and Clinton replaced their wardrobes they took care of Sarah’s hair and make up for a cost of $4,716.49. John Edwards was jealous, demanding to be invited onto the show so he could upgrade those cheap $400 haircuts which forced him to have to sneak around in hotel rooms late at night avoiding the press.

After completing their makeover, Stacy and Clinton had the entire Palin family surprise their friends and family at a reception in Minneapolis. Here is the result of their efforts:

It looks like another success for Stacy and Clinton but this one didn’t turn out like most episodes of What Not to Wear. Instead of raving over how great they looked, their Republican friends are questioning the wisdom of this expense. The worst aspect of this is not that it is of much consequence considering all the other reasons to vote against McCain/Palin, but that this results in yet one more news cycle which is lost to a campaign which has very little left time to come back from far behind.