Who’s Hoity Toity? But That's Not All

I know, I know! What was that about my dropping politics? Well, I made the mistake of reading the New York Times and both Maureen Dowd’s and Kristof''s Op-Ed pieces last night and sure enough, the bile and the real concern overflowed so here I am again.

With all this talk about Obama being an elitist and that McCain and Caribou Barbie are just like the “common folk”, how do these numbers grab you?

The McCains own 13 cars, eight homes and access to a corporate jet and Vanity Fair calculated that Cindy’s outfit for the convention cost $300,000, with three-carat diamond earrings worth $280,000, an Oscar de la Renta dress valued at $3,000, a Chanel white ceramic watch clocking in at $4,500 and a four-strand pearl necklace worth between $11,000 and $25,000. While presenting herself as a I’m-just-like you hockey mom, frugal enough to put the Alaska state plane up for sale on eBay, Palin made her big speech at the convention wearing a $2,500 cream silk Valentino jacket that the McCain staff had gotten her at Saks. So much for the Wal-Mart mom! However, the homespun gal that is so much more American than that elite, foreignish Obama, was all dolled up in Italian couture.

Palin, who used to get her hair done at the Beehive in Wasilla and shop at an Anchorage consignment shop called Out of the Closet, paid her traveling hairstylist – recommended by Cindy McCain -- $10,000 for the first half of October. She’s had a voice coach and the expense was listed in finance reports as Operating Expenditures and Get-Out-The-Vote consulting. Undoubtedly, getting out the vote includes teaching a potential vice president the correct way to pronounce “nuclear.”

According to Dowd, the conservative big shots who still think Palin is “the one” and that she can still be a Reagan in a Valentino skirt are furious at those who have mishandled the governor and dimmed her star power. Ah, what a pity! Now she may have to wait until 2016 to get rid of the phony stench of designer populism.

Hopefully, before then Moose Gal will have shown us even more reason why she needs to pack up, go back to Wasilla and try being a real Mom to her five children.

But it's not just Palin. Consider the fact that Al Qaeda announced that they will have to support McCain in the coming election. According to Nicholas Kristof, this endorsement left the McCain campaign sputtering and noting foolishly that Hamas appears to prefer Obama. Hmmm, guess Al Qaeda's enthusiasm for McCain is definitely not reciprocated.

Richard Clarke and Joseph Nye have both suggested Al Qaeda prefers McCain and might even try to use terror attacks in the coming days to tip the election to him. Nye says that from Al Qaeda's perspective, a continuation of Bush policies is best for recruiting and that McCain is far more likely to continue those policies. And that is just one more very scary thought.