I continue to be amazed at the ineptitude displayed by the McCain campaign. The more obvious examples include squandering their head start in the campaign (McCain wrapped up the nomination well before his Democratic rival) and the lack of strategy to deal with the Bush problem (i.e., how to differentiate the candidate from the Bush administration-and no, repeating “Maverick” ad nauseam doesn’t count).
A smaller example is the current flap over the reported $150,000 spent on clothing and accessories for Governor Palin:
$150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image. My initial reaction was to ignore the story, but the more I think about, the more it struck me as emblematic of the campaign’s problems.
Consider: one of the arguments that the McCain campaign was using against Obama at about the time was to accuse Obama of being a celebrity as well as frequent accusations that Obama was an elitist. So, what does the McCain campaign do when rolling out their Hockey Mom denizen of a small town who is just like us and not like those elites? They spend more money than the vast majority of people make in a year (and indeed, more than a lot of people’s houses cost) on clothes from high-end stores:
the Republican National Committee spent $75,062 at Neiman Marcus and $49,425 at Saks Fifth Avenue in September for Ms. Palin and her family.
Advisers to Ms. Palin said on Wednesday that the purchases — which totaled about $150,000 and were classified as “campaign accessories” — were made on the fly after Ms. Palin, the governor of Alaska, was chosen as the Republican vice-presidential candidate on Aug. 29 and needed new clothes to match climates across the 50 states. They emphasized, too, that Ms. Palin did not spend time on the shopping, and that other people made the decision to buy such an array of clothes.
Now, let’s stipulate for the sake of argument that it makes sense for clothing to be purchased for the Governor given that rushed nature of her nomination. Having done that, one has to ask the question what genius thought that the best way to accomplish this task was to shop at Neiman Marcus?
Beyond blowing the whole “elite” argument, the symbolism in terms of fiscal responsibility (remember that quaint notion) here is devastating. Can anyone make the case that the best way to acquire clothing is to drop $75K at Neimans? None of it exactly screams “reformer” and “Maverick.” and the financial crisis makes it all even worse. McCain is running around taking about greed and his running mate has a $150k wardrobe.
In short, this is a move that both smacks of elitism and fiscal irresponsibility-neither of which plays well for McCain. Were I McCain (or Palin, for that matter), I would fire the person or persons who made these decisions. Of course, they can’t because it would just bring even more media attention to the situation.
Ed Rollins summarized the situation quite well:
“It looks like nobody with a political antenna was working on this,” said Ed Rollins, a Republican political consultant who ran President Ronald Reagan’s re-election campaign in 1984. “It just undercuts Palin’s whole image as a hockey mom, a ‘one-of-us’ kind of candidate.”
In regards to what will happen to the clothing and the rules over the use of the funds in question:
Republican officials said all the clothes would be given to charity after the campaign is over. If Ms. Palin kept the clothes, the $150,000 would have to be taxed as income, tax experts said.
Had the purchases been made by the McCain campaign, it would be a conversion of campaign money into personal use, which is prohibited. The same rule does not apply to money from party committees.
Big Ten poll???
I would add, then, that Obama is also leading the BCS standings by virtue of his home state Northwestern Wildcats’ #22 ranking. No Arizona teams even register in the BCS.
Reply to Ratoe
Comment by Ratoe — Friday, October 24, 2024 @ 10:24 am
The message here is as follows:
If you are a McCain supporter, don’t bother voting. It’s a lost cause, you might as well stay home. This is what the newspapers want, and it’s probably what they’ll get.
And that’s all that these polls do. They have no useful function in our society.
These pollsters all need to get a real job and quit jocking the list; it really confuses people.
Reply to Captain D
Comment by Captain D — Friday, October 24, 2024 @ 10:31 am