How about any? Does my boss pay for my wardrobe, even when I need a new suit for the conference? Nope. Sorry, I feel that 50K more than my HOUSE is my house+50K more than should be spent. I don't care if it's common, if it's natural, if she's a "pop star" or if she's a politician. If those are clothes you're going to wear, YOU pay for them. Period.

I ask this in the spirit of honest inquiry as someone who's most expensive regularly worn piece of clothing (not worn too regularly) is a blue sport coat I purchased from JC Penney's about 12 years ago for less than $100: Would it be reasonable to expect Governor Palin could be outfitted in clothing and accessories that total $1000 per outfit? The whole shebang, clothes, shoes, etc.?

If the answer is yes, then I don't think a clothing budget of about $25,000 would be unreasonable. She'd get about two dozen outfits at $1000 a pop. $25k is probably more than I'll spend on clothes in a lifetime but as several people mentioned, image matters in politics.

If the answer is no, what would constitute a reasonable budget for someone in Gov. Palin's position to outfit themselves? By reasonable I would mean that something most people would look at and say, "Yeah, that makes sense."

For all the mudslinging and references to elitism and Joe Six Pack and Joe the Plumber, it strikes me that we want our candidates to sympathize, if not empathize, with our middle class (or lower) plight, yet we don't want them to be one of us. Who wants Joe Six Pack to be president? We want someone to rise above us, lead us, and stand up for us on the world stage.

A candidate who looks like us raises the fear that they're actually just like us - one of the common folk instead of one of the leaders. Sarah Palin's wardrobe is used to create the impression of leadership and professionalism, if not elitism, while her words are meant to connect with the common man and woman. She's trying to play off this dichotomy in our expectations. Unfortunately, she's coming off vacuous in her attempts at it.

Still, that's an amazing amount of money. I won't spend anywhere near that much on my clothes in my entire lifetime.

Both Jackie Kennedy and Pat Nixon were criticized for wearing "designer" fashions at campaign appearances, but since they paid for the clothing themselves the issue died down.

When Jackie became first lady/fashion icon, her legendary clothes were mostly furnished to her at or below cost, since the designers knew that they would make a nice profit off the publicity and knockoffs.

In fact, a goodly number of the couture duds worn on the red carpets by celebrities are rented for the same reason - the actress will wear the gown only one time, but that one time will be enough to lead to rich rewards for the designer.

So how come no designer offered to "do" Ms. Palin a month ago, in exchange for free publicity? How come people actually had to PAY for her makeover?

As Washington Post fashion writer Robin Givhan noted in her column today, Clinton and Stacy buy women whole new wardrobes for $5000 on their show.

And does anyone actually believe she was planning to give away her clothes after the election? And what about the clothes for her family? Why do all of them need a new wardrobe? they aren't running for office.

According to the experts at Vanity Fair, Cindy McCain's mustard yellow ensemble that she wore Tuesday night at the RNC topped $313K.

Palin's a bargoon!

Seriously, her clothes do look chic and somebody has clearly chosen a stark palette for her to match her stark political views--black, white and blood red. It works for her, but when she opens her mouth and says that as VP she would be "in charge of the senate"...maybe somebody twisted her hair up a bit too tight that day.

Stephanie Zacharek, you make me laugh out loud! ;) Pass the Aqua Net.

"...I don't want to start wondering if politicians can represent or relate to "regular people" just because they are wealthy, or because they are dressed or coifed or presented expensively."

You don't want to start wondering? So you can't even comprehend, at all, not even a little bit, how a logical person might be able to question whether a wealthy politician who spends $30,000 per year on luxury items like clothes or vacations, for example, can ever truly relate, in an actual meaningful way, to a working-class person who has to support 3 children on $23,000 per year? Really? This is completely beyond your ability to fathom? OK, sure, they both eat/sleep/shit/have babies, but so does my cat. Oh wait, it's not that you are unable to see it, it's that you don't *want* to. Right. My bad.

I distrust Palin and her ilk as much as the next Northeastern-born Jewish guy, but this is just silly. Her campaign has literally hundreds of millions of dollars to spend, so of course they are willing to part with some of that money to make her look as fantastic as they can. Buying fancy clothes with money donated by one's most devoted supporters in order to look one's best when one speaks to them does not have any bearing on one's ability to assume the role of Chief Executive. The amount of money spent may seem enormous, but it's a pittance compared with the volume of cash being spent on robocalls suggesting that "B. Hussein Obama" wants to blow up the Pentagon. What the clothing budget really highlights is how generally wasteful, ridiculous, and wildly over-the-top presidential politicking has become over the last decade.

Is more than most peoples' houses are worth.

Truth be told, you can get some kickass stunning separates from: Marshalls, Macy's, Kohls, Target, Ross - familiar places for those of us who need to look good at a reasonable price. I'm sorry but Valentino isn't necessary, no way, no how. Especially when you're the darling of the hockeymom pitbull set.

I do not deny that it's VERY important to look good. But this woman is a knockout to begin with, she didn't much different in that little suit they pictured her in, pre makeover. And the littlest girl looked sweet in her tiara and dressydress. THAT I can identify with. Her running around holding her mom's LV bag, I cannot.

They've used her badly. SHE used herself badly. All in aid of ambition and power and money. I feel badly for her daughters. They are watching their mother turned into a national joke.