This from someone claiming so adamantly that she and her family are part of the middle class (I suppose it depends on how you define the middle class, but regardless) …
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Credit: The Dish Rag by Elizabeth Snead
Sarah Palin says she’s just “your average hockey mom.” But she sure doesn’t dress like one.
Seems the RNC coughed up a whopping $150,000 to outfit/accessorize Palin and her family for the campaign trail.
The tally included included a $75,062.63 visit to Neiman Marcus and two Saks Fifth Avenue pit shops totaling $49,425.74, according to Jeanne Cummings at Politico. That’s a lot more than the $1,874 spent by average Americans, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Click here to see how Sarah’s clothing has changed since her VP nomination.
According to our intrepid political reporters at Top of the Ticket, the RNC’s financial disclosure records for September and October show that the RNC did charge those purchases as “campaign accessories.”
Charged were Bloomingdale’s ($5,102.71), Barney’s ($789.72), Atelier men’s boutique ($4,902.45) and two baby clothing and accessory stores.
Apparently, it’s totally legal — albeit not normal — for campaigns to buy duds for their candidates. Politico checked records for Barack Obama’s campaign and the Democratic party: No similar fashion expenditures. …
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And these gems from the Hugh Hewitt Show (I don’t know who he is either, but Palin interviewed with him in late September):
HH: Governor, you mentioned the people who are struggling right now. Have you and your husband, Todd, ever faced tough economic times where you had to sit around a kitchen table and make tough choices?
SP: Oh my goodness, yes, Hugh. I know what Americans are going through. Todd and I, heck, we’re going through that right now even as we speak, which may put me again kind of on the outs of those Washington elite who don’t like the idea of just an everyday working class American running for such an office. But yeah, there’s been a lot of times that Todd and I have had to figure out how we were going to pay for health insurance. We’ve gone through periods of our life here with paying out of pocket for health coverage until Todd and I both landed a couple of good union jobs. Early on in our marriage, we didn’t have health insurance, and we had to either make the choice of paying out of pocket for catastrophic coverage or just crossing our fingers, hoping that nobody would get hurt, nobody would get sick. So I know what Americans are going through there. And you know, even today, Todd and I are looking at what’s going on in the stock market, the relatively low number of investments that we have, looking at the hit that we’re taking, probably $20,000 dollars last week in his 401K plan that was hit. I’m thinking geez, the rest of America, they’re facing the exact same thing that we are. We understand what the problems are. It’s why I have all the faith in the world that John McCain is the right top of any ticket at this point to get us through these challenges. It’s a good balanced ticket where he’s got the experience, and he’s got the bipartisan approach that it’s going to take to get us through these challenges. And I have the acknowledgement and the experience of going through what America is going through.