Palin and McCain: Dressing for Joe Six-Pack
We all put our pants on one leg at a time. But when you're running for public office, there's a whole lot of thinking about which pair of pants you're putting on.
David Brooks' recent New York Times Op-Ed column, The Class War Before Palin, hit home what I'm sure the McCain/Palin wardrobe team has been strategizing all along: There are more Joe Six-Packs in this country than there are champagne-swirling, National Review-reading Republicans. Today's core Red State voters care about guns, tailgates and the man upstairs.
And guess who is hopping right into her pencil skirt and peep-toes for these rebel rousers? Bouffant Barbie of course!
The Washington Post's Robin Givhan said it best when she wrote, "Sarah Palin's style is exceptionally ordinary. Nothing about it connotes authority. No detail announces that she is in charge." What? Winking doesn't convey power? Canvas totebags promoting moose hunting as the new Sunday morning activity for Joe Six-Pack and Jane Winecooler don't scream "we don't want your foreign oil?"
The point is, Sarah Palin and her hockey moms, grandpas and second cousins don't want her to be authoritative. They're not looking for an old guard Republican like Cindy McCain with her multi-millionaire's wardrobe. Oscar de la who? They want a woman who is "just like me!" "Why every morning I wake up and tease my hair till it's big enough to hide a small rodent in, tell my knocked-up teenage daughter that a marriage by force is better than no marriage at all, have someone fired cause gosh darn, I don't like them very much and then go shoot a moose for supper." Frankly, if I were a Republican, I would be offended that Sarah Palin likened herself to me.
But this is her thing. She is dressing for Joe Six-Pack. Does Joe Six-Pack want a woman who wears fancy Parisian frocks that cost a month's salary? Or one who wears the Armani pants in the family? Well if you're judging from the McCain/Palin team, he sure gosh darn don't.
And Palin the puppet is ready to walk right into their gun-toting arms. In fact, she has been ready since day one. Her bad highlights and her layers of puffy bangs scream "don't mind me, I've been filing my nails in a log cabin for the last decade and didn't know the bouffant was now reserved for burlesque dancers and women who think Vogue is a devilish jig invented by Madonna (cue giggle)." I'm pretty sure my college feminist literature professor is vomiting every time she sees bouffant Barbie. Don't worry Professor Hart, I am too.
As for John McCain, I imagine he has a small battalion of wardrobe mavens with hypnotic voices soothingly saying over and over "Real men don't care about clothes! War heroes don't cry if a jacket doesn't fit in the shoulders!" HuffPost blogger Alan Au, whose job is to dress a man of McCain's stature, has suggested countless improvements on the Senator's ill-fitting, drab wardrobe. But nothing changes. The man simply wants to dress badly. He's got a wife made of money who wears Chanel and drips in diamonds. The man has the means to dress well. He just really, really doesn't want to. Joe Six-Pack wouldn't approve.
It's exactly how your high schooler feels. Sarah and John just want to fit in! They want good ol' Joe to invite them over for a pig roast and six ice cold domestic beers. Or maybe Palin really does believe the old saying "The higher the hair, the closer to God."
Follow Karin Tanabe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/snobbytanabe
Loading comments…
Want to reply to a comment? Hint: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to
Bristol Palin pregnant= doing the right thing for the man upstairs
If Obama's daughter pregnant= another black family who can't control their kids
McCain calling Obama, "that one"= just a way of referring to the person you are talking about
If Obama called McCain, "that one"= a black man showing disdain for an elder white man
Palin saying that Obama is tied to terrorist and hates America= just pointing out the facts
If Obama mentioned that Palin's husband was part of a secessionist group= now thats out of line and false
If Obama wins= theres still hope for this country
If McCain wins= the end for all of us is near
for christ's sake the issues please. leave her alone on her choice in clothes. this is not what we need.
karin tanabe -- what a world-class snob you are!
You sound exactly like a junior high-school girl breathlessly talking with her clique of clueless and mean-spirited friends, tearing down the "new girl" for the clothes she wears.
This comment, however, reveals more about you than even you realize:
"I'm pretty sure my college feminist literature professor is vomiting every time she sees bouffant Barbie."
Yup, I'll bet she is -- such is the face of the "compassionate" left -- hilarious if not so utterly sad.
You and your "college feminist literature professor" would no doubt be astonished and uncontrollably vomiting about today's news out of Aledo, Texas -- the high school students there have elected a Downs Syndrome classmate Homecoming Queen. I'm not sure how hip and cool her dress was, but will be waiting with bated breath for your review.
This particular article is not supposed to be about the "issues". Is is a hopefully humorous look at people who refuse to dress as well as they could.
The comment about the girl with Down Syndrome being the Homecoming Queen was very nice. She is obviously a warm and loving, young woman. For what it's worth, the Homecoming King at my son's high school is gay. Also a very nice young man, I am told.
Bottom line... WHAT IS YOUR POINT?? People who try to dress well are elitist snobs because they want to look professional?
People who try to look and act like something they are not. Now that is sad.
OBAMA / BIDEN '08
Go home Sarah, and face the music in your own state. Leave us alone. Go back to your 'average' joe six pack admirers who have boosted your ego to beyond the pale, and lowered the bar for your yahoo ladies in waiting.
The whole teen baby mama thing is rooted in white supremacy whereas it is being promoted now to have as many babies as possible if your are white and outlaw abortion to boot. Statistics show it is white women who overwhelmingly get abortions. Therefore if you promote this garbage you are sure to bump up your census numbers in 2012.
Also, someone please tell me why the Palin abuse of power case only got 1/2 days (evening at that)
worth of media attention? WHO IS SARAH PALIN? Why isn't her ties with seperatist organizations while she was an adult being discussed? The media is more erratic than John McCains campaign.
wrong, LoyalJane -- statistics show it is overwhelmingly black women who get abortions and further show the concentration of Planned Parenthood clinics in poor, urban, mostly black neighborhoods.
Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, was a racist and a eugenicist. Her policies are being carried out to this day, much to the detriment of the black population.
But, LoyalJane, don't let the facts get in the way of your fallacious and race-baiting statements.
Not much has been made of Palin's Radical philosophy on abortion either. Her position is astounding:
Palin does not support the Right of a woman to keep government away from her body, but
she does support the Right of every Rapist to choose the mother of his child.
I just don't understand why anyone would want a rape victim to bear the rapists' child??? And Palin has the nerve to say Obama supports unlimited abortion? Palin's ideas are so much worse.
To force a little girl to bear a baby, and have to tell the entire town and church and family and friends and classmates she was brutally raped, because otherwise they'll all wonder whose baby it is, is INSANE!!
I'll tell you why the "abuse of power" case only got 1/2 day...it's not newsworthy. Palin tried to get her former trooper brother-in-law fired for threatening her father (the trooper's father-in-law) and for TASERING her nephew (the trooper's own kid.) If the media were to report on it for too long, the actual truth would come out and the media would look like the ass that it is. It wasn't because "she didn't like him..." It was because the trooper was an abusive father AND a brutal cop.
And was reprimanded according to state procedures. The fact that she and her hubby continued to pursue this vendetta is the point. Unless new charges were filed (which were not) the case was closed. She violated ethics and should be held accountable. Yes, she had the right to fire Monegan, but putting undue pressure on a highly stressful position is un-ethical and un-lawful, not to mention, immoral. She should be thanking Monegan for saving her butt, because he continued to tell her to what she was doing was illegal. Palin has no place in any public office.
Check out the "I support unwed mothers" button. The republicans don't to a d@mn thing to help unwed mothers.
Black teen pregnancies? A 'crisis' in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A 'blessed event.'
Ah! So true! The pro-lifers would quiet down if abortions were only legal for blacks.Tha
Exactly, just one of the many delightful double standards from the rabid right.
Perfectly stated!
Hey, but they do love to talk trash about them behind their backs... :o)
Wonderfully prescient post. What is so surprising to me about Palin is that on closer scrutiny , she is so ordinary. There is nothing about her remotely interesting in style, substance or her mind outiside of an unmatched ambition and callowness to suggest the "excitement" she has caused. What it all says to me is that removed from the tug-of-war characteristics of this campaign, she's a nonentity. She has nothing to say and says it without grace or style. Without the dynamics of the so-stratified electorate in this campaign season, she would in fact be a ...ohh hockey mom?! Really, add 4 years to her age and see how she holds up. I guarantee you, if McCain does NOT win, aside from a meager attempt by the GOP to prop up their poster girl for Republican icon status, she will drift into the ether and return to her mansion in Wasilla and get ready for Todd's next snowmobile race.
That is exactly why she is popular among millions of other remotely uninteresting voters. She is one of us mentality. Coincidently the same reason Barack is the other media star in this race.
Now, am I the only one who thinks she is hot? Come on raise your hands, you know you do.
i guess if these millions of uninteresting voters need doctors they prefer someone who they can have a beer with. hmmmm maybe all those doctors who have drinking problems should move to neighborhoods whose inhabitants think this way.
i'm sorry, but i want my president and vice president to be a million times smarter than i am. i don't care if they eat arugula or drink mocha latte and drive a hybrid. i don't care as long as they understand what is needed to move this country in the right direction.
mccain should have gone with jindal -- that would have been "mavericky
it is sad to see a man who was respected by many sink this low so fast.
I am quite sure that Palin does not shop the clearance racks at JC Penney/s the average working class and middle class family does not shop at Nieman Marcus. it is fine if Palin spends 2500. for a Valentino jacket, but it is hypocritical and deceitful to then use "We" when talking about being a working class person.
It's not like she is a struggling mother forced to work at two jobs and can't even attend her child's hockey games, or afford the equipment.
I want to hear from people who say they are going to represent everyone and not just a certain ethnic, or class group.
When white Mormon C. Everett Koop was surgeon general, he was very clear that he was everyone's surgeon general, and not just white heterosexual males' surgeon general.
If Palin is going to only represent "Joe Sixpack," she's not representing me or family members and community. I feel more represented by Barack Obama, who was raised by a single mother, and went from low income to upper middle class. He'll understand all income levels, and the aspirations of working class, middle class and the concerns of people with more money. My family is white Jewish, African American, Hispanic and Christian. We are lower income, working class, professional and higher income. I don't want any of my family left out. We don't drink six packs so Palin/McCain doesn't represent us. we'd be "those ones" or outsiders in a McCain/Palin administration.
You want someone to represent everyone right? Will Obama represent the people of Alaska, who are all included in the group you mentioned above. Obama is not of that group, He made 4 million dollars last year. Nobody I know is in his group. Everyone i know works hard for a living. Will he represent me? Will he represent the small company I work for. Will he raise taxes on them, putting my job at risk? Supposing that he is able to identify with the groups you mention, will that be reflected in his policies? It is his application of public policy that all the floks you named should be paying attention to, nothing else.
Either you're living due west of Alaska or you lack critical thinking skills. Instead of addressing Obama as some guy who's out of touch with reality in America, perhaps you should be talking about McCain, because McCain certainly comes within the bounds you speak.
You suggest are content with the current state of the country. Are you kidding? Perhaps you're really young and just don't get it.
Let me help get your head on straight. Until this country realizes parity in taxes, we're headed for utter economic disaster.
We ALL work hard Buddy. What makes you special?
good lord, the man was just saying that gov. palin should stop using the joe six pack line. if she truly is a maverick she wouldn't even use that line because that line has been used since time immemorial. heck, that's what got bush elected -- TWICE.
"Nobody I know is in his group. Will he represent me?"
Lol--like a Republican ever would.
The least you could do is remember back to the economy when Clinton was president. Gas prices actually going down every year, etc.......
Maybe i need new eye glasses...
In most campaigns, the candidates get extreme makeovers to give a false perception to their supporters that they are hip, slick and cool. After all, if people saw them in the light of day, they wouldn't like what they see. Sort of like the emperor wearing no clothes story.
But ... but ... where are the FLAG PINS!?!
I feel like I can't trust these women. Do they really love their countries?
Now, Cindy. ... Cindy is another story, since this gal apparently doesn't know she's dressing like a bazillionaire everywhere she goes, and that she's outdressing everyone in a thousand-mile radius, as though it were her constant goal. It's the "nobody's better than me" queen-bee mentality. We've been in a massive financial catastrophe for a month, and Mrs. McCain continues to dress like she's just come back from Monaco, or as though she owns the planet. Ridiculous. In a recession? In WWII, people would practically stone you on the street if you had pleats in your skirt; it was considered a waste of material, as well as pretentious. Every political wife should know that when times are harsh, to tone it down. Take a cue from Mrs. Roosevelt, or, for that matter, "Pat's cloth coat." Substance over style, in such times.
Except that if Cindy changes her wardrobe now (like she would know how to shop the clearance racks at JCPenney), it would still be style over substance since the change would be only for political purposes. As soon as the election were over she would just burn the offensive off-the-rack rags and return to her pretentious pleats anyway.
i do not like her style but i won't fault her for her wardrobe, after all to her a $2500 shirt is nothing. she probably considers it a bargain :)
She is a bazillionaire, Her dad ran a successful beer distributorship. Guess who bought all that beer? that's right, Joe twelvepack.
Neither Palin nor Cindy are anywhere near an Eleanor Roosevelt, who by the way, was not afraid to appear as who she really was, because she was a woman of substance (inner and outer), intellligence and vision, not the pseudo Barbie dolls that Palin and Cindy represent. McCain's taste in women is very telling of who he is too.
As to the McCain clothing article referenced: I think that's a cheap shot. I've seen McCain in ready-to-wear Brooks Bros. and the like, as well as bespoke suits, over the years. The fact that some of the custom suits don't always hang perfectly on his frame is obviously due to his injuries. Anyone in tailoring knows it's difficult to get a jacket to hang smoothly and correctly even on someone with perfect posture; it goes without saying it's extremely difficult on someone who had joints dislocated throughout their body (and which never quite healed due to inadequate or no medical attention).
And frankly, I think McCain can dress however he wishes. He's earned that right.
Hairstyle aside, I have the opposite view as the author.
I think while Palin attempts to put forth a populist political image, her recently acquired outfits bespeak a wealthier, ladder-climber, nouveau-riche lifestyle.
I believe it was reported she shopped at Neiman Marcus, or a similar store, before the convention, and that the outfit (Valentino jacket) cost $2,500.
After seeing her debate outfit, I'd guess that was at least made-to-measure, possibly custom, plenty of hand-stitching, in either a wool blend (I'd guess a slight mohair blend -- but possibly cashmere or silk), or a super 120s bolt.
And we can't forget her $700 bespoke eyeglasses, for which she had someone come to her house and measure her.
Average hockey-mom stuff.
I guess my impression is that while she looked slightly middle-class to begin with, the Palm-Beach females in the upper echelons of the GOP soon took her on some "shopping trips" in the past month. And I imagine the Conn.-Ave. men in the McCain camp likewise went shopping with Todd and Mr. Levi whomever -- their outfits have looked way above their income level, geography, and presumptive clothing expertise.
Their called handlers. Hilary had them, Barack has them and yes Palin has them. Media consultants, stylist, lets face it this is sho business. To presume that your guy does not use image shapers is naive, and to fault her for it is intellectually dishonest as are most of the attacks from the left.
yes we can fault her for it because she keeps on referring to herself as a REGULAR HOCKY MOM LIKE YOU :) she should now add the line but with a bigger clothing allowance :D
I agree. Keep Sarah Palin off SNL until she has given an in-depth interview on "Meet the Press." We're not looking to elect a comedienne, (though you'd never know it), we're looking to elect a United States Vice President. Maybe if one of the networks would promise Palin a sitcom pilot, she'd pull out of the race. She doesn't really want to do the job any more than "W" did; she just wants to play the role.
What would happen to the GOP's "Celebrity" attack if their veep was on t.v.? Or is it so late in the game that they just don't care?
I think that Failin' Palin just made up the SNL offer, hoping if she says it enough that people will start to believe it's true...i.e
Everyone should be insulted by this joe six pack term and that includes republicans.
http://www
Joe sixpack means regular people. Not washington insiders, not millionaires. it means all the rest of us who actually work hard for a damn living.
well -- hmmm do all the working class citizens of this great nation drink beer??? i work and get paid minimum wage. i don't drink beer. i drink soda. but not a whole lot because it is not good for me (according to my doctor who is way smarter and that's how i like them). maybe she should also say jane soda one can?? :)
Uhhhh....N
Look behind the speaker and see who she is addressing, who is supporting her...and who she will support and represent! It certainly is NOT people of color!
Work hard? Do you mean like getting paid by the McCain sleeze machine for being a neocon troll? yes that is hard work.
Guess what, I'm going to graduate school full time, work five part time jobs to pay my bills, and can't wait to walk my elitist-in
Or is that not working hard enough?
"Joe sixpack means regular people. Not washington insiders, not millionaires. it means all the rest of us who actually work hard for a damn living."
--No, that's Joe Lunchbox. Joe Sixpack is his ne'er-do-well neighbour
She's giving those of us who live in Trailer Parks a bad name
You must be logged in to comment. Log in or connect with
