Beyond Hypocrisy

Just when you think you have seen, read and heard it all, comes disclosure that Sarah Palin’s stylist was paid $22,800 for the first two weeks of October alone by the Republican National Committee, while her traveling hair stylist was paid $10,000 for “communications consulting” in the same period. This is after revelation that the RNC spent $150,000 for Palin’s wardrobe, dressing her up with the latest in fashion from such upscale stores as Saks and Neiman Marcus. Is there anything wrong in making the VP candidate look her best? One may cry sexism here but the real issue is not whether Palin should be transformed into a knockout to improve GOP’s chance to win the election; no, it is more the case of whether the Wasilla mom can claim with a straight face that she represents Joe six-pack and wall-mart shoppers struggling to make ends meet. She cannot but the Republican Party has decided that Palin, not McCain, is their last, best hope to win the election and so why not let the mendacity and the crocodile tears flow from one made easy on the eye with the best makeup and clothes money can buy? Alas, it will not work, for while Republican operatives believe that you can judge a book by its cover, American voters know better.

An intriguing opinion piece in the Washington Post today by Kathleen Parker may explain the attention lavished on Sarah Palin by the Republican National Committee. John McCain may have something to do with it.

More on mendacity: Ashley Todd, the young white McCain staffer in Pittsburgh who claimed she was assaulted by a 6-foot-4-inch black Obama supporter and who carved the letter "B" (backwards) on her face ... well, it was a pathetic hoax involving self-mutilation. Todd was reading from a script that predates the civil war. She was also unknowingly invoking literature. Remember Atticus Finch defending a black man falsely accused of rape in "To Kill a Mockingbird?" As soon as the story broke, McCain and Palin called Todd to express their sympathies. Drudge Report carried a screaming banner on its home page. Right-wing outlets like the New York Post could hardly contain their glee at the obvious symbolism of the story: "How dare a black man, given his race's violent past and present, aspire to the highest office in the land?" To their credit, Pittsburgh police didn't fall for this ancient race-baiting and Todd's story soon fell apart under scrutiny. My guess is that quite a few undecided white voters across the nation will now vote for Obama because of this incident.