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 trips 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.
maybe Palin could go without 3 jackets and pay for the rape kits that she has rape victims pay for themselves. In Palins town if women wants a chance at a conviction for her rapist they have to pay for their own rape kit. But apparently its ok for the gov. to pick up the tab for Palins designer clothes? One word for that woman, DIGUST!
Actually it was all those people sending in checks to the Republican National Committee, not the government, who paid for the clothes. The government of Alaska only paid for her kid’s travel expenses while Palin has been governor, but the government has not paid for their clothes.
This should let people know that if the Republican Party will spend this kind of money just to make their candidate look good then, what they will do with the taxpayer’s money once they are in office. Those of us that are labeled lower middle class, shop for our cloths at Wal-Mart, because that’s all we can afford, after we pay our bills and taxes and Insurances
I don’t have a problem with Sarah Palin $ 150,000 shopping clothing expenses as long as she pays for it…I’m a Realtor and I need to look profesional too but I buy and pay for my own cloths, she should not be allow to donated the outfits after the campaing, she should reimburst the money now. No free rides after all doesn’t she earns a salary like everyone else. How much did the Palin’s reported on their income tax….
I’m looking at this whole thing with great interest. If the American People swallow all the GOP is telling them,
we are in deep, deep trouble. I’ve been looking back at our
history and I see that we had two GOP presidents just before the great depression, the last one being Hoover. It took Roosevelt 12 years to get us back on our feet. I now see 8 years of another GOP president and we are in another hole, almost as deep. Why are people so surprised that the GOP would spend that amount of money on Ms. Palin for
her stump speeches. We are all aware that the GOP are into
looking good, if nothing else! If you want to see what the GOP stands for, look up what has always happened under the GOP as far as unemployment. What has happened to the middle class under the GOP. Do some reaserch, you’ll
be inlightend…. Then check the same thing under the
Democrats. If not, just believe what the GOP tells you
and join all those other Americans who are also uninformed……
Where was the outrage when Laura B. and Cindy M wore over $350 K in clothing at the Republican National Convention. While most likely it wasn’t paid for by the RNC, it still shows how out of touch they are with the real “Joe and Janes” trying to keep their families fed and clothed and a roof (ONE!) over their heads. http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/09/cindy-mccains-300000-outfit.html
Verging on recession, I’m just wondering how much of the little people’s money was spent by the Obambi campaign on just one of his styrofoam columns in Denver never mind the twelve that adorned the stage.
As a female RNC contributor, I’m proud that my donations went to “dress up” Governor Palin to represent working mom’s like me. I’ll take investing in that type of positive image building over styrofoam columns any day.
The Palins are not rich DC inside Senators like the Obambis, Bidens and McCains. They don’t have Oprah and Hollywood supplying her wardrobe. I’m glad the RNC levelled the playing field for this terrific woman.
$150K for clothes? Now thats what I call “putting lipstick on a pig”
Thats right, I said it…
First it was essentially revealed (albeit with a show of delicacy) that Mrs. Palin is a crook, and now we learn she’s a fake. I find it truly frightening that the United States executive branch could soon be presided over by an eccentric “maverick” who chose this individual as his running mate. If McCain wins, this nightmare will not only predictably lead to a constitutional crisis, but will ultimately do even more harm to the reputation of the evangelical Christian movement than the outrageous scam put on as a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit last year at a “natural history” museum in San Diego. See
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/did-christian-agenda-lead-biased-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-san-diego
Isn’t $150,000 more than the Palins reported as income for last year?
$150 K that is pretty reasonable on clothes spending for a family of 6-7 right? I think that this information was probably released by her own party to get her some free airtime on those news stations that Bill O’Reilly can’t stand because they choose to appreciate Obama and not McCain. Bill Suck it up! This is America and those news stations have the right to pick Obama as do I. Fox News needs to get with the program not expect everyone to do as they do. Freedom of Choice.
Wow JAZ, this is the third website I’ve seen your exact same comment. I guess you have nothing original to add. I’m a working mom, and I’m lucky if I can afford one nice business suit. I could pay off my mortgage with what Palin spent and still have money left over to cloth all my children probably for life.
If this is what the type of spending the GOP considers important, I hate to think of what 8 more years of Bush lite would look like.
Independent of whether or not Palin’s exorbitant shopping spree was or was not funded by the RNC, either partially or in its entirety, $150,000 is a significant amount of money to be allocated toward clothing. While I am cognizant of the fact that a candidate’s aesthetic presentation may play into the voter’s perception of an individual’s competence as a leader, it would be my hope that the public would pay more attention to the comments that emerge from Palin’s prettily puckered lips than it does to her wardrobe ensemble. Furthermore, it may have been in the Republican campaign’s interest to hold on to those now wasted funds instead of whining about the undisclosed financial donations that the Obama campaign pragmatically applied toward its advertisement strategy.
Wow… I had just naturally assumed this was a piece from The Onion, and was smirking at the first few appenders for being so gullible, when all the time the gullible one was me.
One positive thing comes out of this farce, though: it proves that every time I think the Republicans have sunk as low as they can get, they prove me wrong! I’m beginning to think there *is* no lower limit for them, and yet those who are suffering the most because of their policies and actions are *still* defending them. It is truly astonishing.
I’m not too comfortable with being considered Joe Sixpack
There you go again Jaz posting the exact comment again. I don’t believe McCain is getting his money’s worth with you. Cutting and pasting the exact same comments everywhere. But it does show how stupid McCain’s camp think the voting public is.
As ridiculous as Jaz’s comment is (Biden rich? Oprah supplying wardrobes? Styrofoam columns? Palin terrific?) this was actually one of the less objectionable pro-Palin comments compared to some which didn’t make it out of moderation.
Make no mistake. She is the Imelda Marcos of our time. The abuses will continue if they get elected.
McCain bailed on Michigan – how symbolic – and how telling.
MA4T