Palin Really Bugs Me

An article on Yahoo! says that Sarah Palin is getting a lot of attention because of $150,000 spend on her wardrobe and hair.

I'm not going to debate whether that is excessive or not -- whether it is or is not is up to you to decide.

But in the article, the first thing she says is:

"I think Hillary Clinton was held to a different standard in her primary race," Palin said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune posted on the newspaper's Web site Thursday night. "Do you remember the conversations that took place about her, say superficial things that they don't talk about with men, her wardrobe and her hairstyles, all of that? That's a bit of that double standard."

So her first point is that it's a double standard -- that we criticize women and not men on their wardrobe and hairstyle. Sure, maybe. But I guarantee you that if a male politician came to a debate in khaki pants and a polo instead of a suit, or his hair wasn't combed just right, he would get as much flak as Sarah Palin would. But yes, sure, no one pays attention to how much men spend on clothes. Fine.

But then Palin says:

"It's kind of painful to be criticized for something when all the facts are not out there and are not reported," Palin said.

Whoa! So first you want to pull out the double standard card, which basically admits that you did spend that much but so do men so people shouldn't attack you. Then you change the argument, saying that people don't have "all the facts." Really? What facts are we missing? Your hair and wardrobe is expensive.

What Sarah Palin is trying to do is play offense and defense. She's defending herself by saying that it's a double standard and she shouldn't be under the microscope on her spending, while playing offense and stating that your facts are WRONG! Not a bad tactic, except for the fact that claiming a double standard admits to the facts being correct. If they were incorrect you would have a bogus comparison and not care about the double standard -- also, you would correct them. Sarah Palin does neither.