Barracuda Bandwagon

In the Washington Examiner, Mark Tapscott blames the party bigwigs for the fashion disaster:

"Every time I think the campaign professionals at the Republican National Committee can't possibly do anything else to sink the party, they do something else that simply defies logical explanation. Like taking a candidate who epitomizes Middle American values and spending $150,000 to dress her up in Saks Fifth Avenue finery.

"Apparently, they just couldn't stand the thought of a GOP candidate for vice president actually wearing the same clothes on the campaign trail that she wears in real life. No, they had to go make her look like . . . one of them.

"Did nobody over there think it through and realize doing this would hand Obama and the Democrats the last perfect piece of evidence of how out of touch Republicans are with the real world?"

CNN's Campbell Brown, who as I noted the other day has drawn the wrath of the McCain campaign, says it's fine for the RNC to pay for Palin's wardrobe and stylists:

"Women get scrutinized based on appearance far more than men. And look, I speak from experience here. When I wear a bad outfit on the air, I get viewer email complaining about it. A lot of email. Seriously. When Wolf Blitzer wears a not-so-great tie, how much email do you think he gets?

"My point is for women unfortunately appearance is part of the job. If Wolf or Anderson shows up on the air without make-up, you think you would even notice? I show up without make-up? Trust me, you'll notice."

This just in. "SNL" costume designer says Palin wanted to wear nicer outfits: "I had to get her to understand why she needed to wear the same thing as Tina [Fey]. We had gone off and created it for the first time a month ago, a look we identified as Sarah Palin. She had moved on in her own image of herself."

In her first newspaper interview, Palin tells the Chicago Tribune's Jill Zuckman that the clothing story has been distorted:

" 'That whole thing is just, bad!' she said. 'Oh, if people only knew how frugal we are. It's kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported,' said Palin, saying the clothes are not worth $150,000 and were bought for the Republican National Convention. Still, she has been wearing pricey clothes at campaign events this fall. She said they will be given back, auctioned off or sent to charity. Most of them, she said, haven't even left the belly of her campaign plane."

Most polls (except for the AP) still favor Obama:

"Senator Barack Obama is showing surprising strength among portions of the political coalition that returned George W. Bush to the White House four years ago, a cross section of support that, if it continues through Election Day, would exceed that of Bill Clinton in 1992, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News polls.