She’s Not Rich

The last 24 hours have been consumed by a media feeding frenzy over the fact that the Republican National Committee spent approximately $150,000 on clothes and makeup for Sarah Palin and her family. This is being peddled as though it were some kind of scandal. As a threshold matter, one wonders why: it’s not as though tax dollars were being wasted. Why is it anyone’s business?

It isn’t, actually. For what it’s worth, the clothes don’t belong to Palin, they belong to the RNC, and when the campaign is over they most likely will be auctioned off at a profit. So why are our reporters so obsessed with this pathetic non-story?

Why are they not concerned with how much money Joe Biden spent on his hair-plugs? Why haven’t they breathlessly told us how much money Hillary Clinton’s wardrobe, plus her cosmetic surgery and Botox, cost? Why haven’t they focused on Barack Obama’s wardrobe? His clothes are so stylish that he was on the cover of GQ:

ObamaGQ513.jpg

The answer is obvious: all of those other candidates are rich. Bill Clinton is paid $100,000 for a one-hour speech, so his wife doesn’t have to report how much she spends on clothes, makeup and plastic surgery. Barack Obama made over $4 million last year, so he can wear the most fashionable clothes and reporters only admire his style. Palin is the exception. She and her family are not rich; they do not have clothes in their closets suitable for a run for the Vice-Presidency. So the RNC, entirely appropriately, fronted the purchase of clothes that will see them through until November. So why is this a news story, let alone some kind of “scandal”?

It’s only a story if you think, like most Democrats, that only the rich should participate in politics. Rich people don’t have to worry about having clothes appropriate for a run for national office. The rest of us do. The Left’s attack on Sarah Palin is really an attack on ordinary people–those who aren’t rich–presuming to participate in the democratic process in 21st century America.

PAUL adds: True. But $150,000? When you already look that good? It seems to me that someone (Palin herself?) should have figured out that this was a potential source of embarrassment and drawn the line considerably south of $150,000.

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