Photo by Flickr user ElvertBarnes. Used under a Creative Commons license.

Not to sound thick or anything but based on what I remember from friends who’ve worked in, say, movies, theater, and other forms of the performance industry I’ve got a couple of questions about Governor Palin’s new wardrobe.

First of all did she just grab a campaign credit card and beeline for the nearest Saks or whereever it was she went shopping? Did she buy all distinct new outfits or multiples and variations on a smaller number of outfits? Did she have a budget? Did she go by herself or go with a professional dresser? How many appearances has she been to and what’s the standard expectation for same or different attire for each venue? For each magazine cover-photo shoot? With days off for R&R September 4th to November 4th is maybe 50 days. Did Governor Palin buy 50 $3,000 outfits? A few whopping-expensive ballgowns for formal nomination- and election-eve events and a bunch of more nearly-reasonably priced clothes? Did the bulk of the expense wind up being a few really pricey pieces of, say, signature jewelry?

How many suitcases and/or trunks do you need to wrangle $150,000 worth of wardrobe and accessories? Given time and travel of an eight-week start-from-scratch campaign marathon vs. budget constraints what’s the cost vs. opportunity of wear-it-once vs. cleaning and delivery when travel often involves multiple multiple-time-zones trips a day? And who was doing the wrangling?

I was talking to a young friend who just got back from sort of vagabonding around former Commonwealth countries for a year and she mentioned meeting a woman who’s entire job entails traveling with some rock star or another and choosing the clothes he’s going to wear each day. If the McCain family alone budges $200,000 plus a year for servants what’s a couple more staff to keep someone the campaign selected in part for her appearance in clothes? Was the $150,000 for clothes and accessories alone or were other services provided? And how does the expense line up with other campaign-related expenses such as primary (and auxiliary hello, dresser eats and stays somewhere nearby) daily travel, rooms, jets, catering, security, briefing, blah, blah, blah.

Oh yeah, and how does that compare to the (fully-encumbered, fully-amortized) cost of keeping other public personalities like, say, Katie Courec, Regis Philbin, George W. Bush, or (you might be surprised) the Version “Can you hear me now” guy kitted out.

In other words, yeah, it’s scandalous whether the Governor decided to expense a $150,000 fashion spree for for the giggles, or if the campaign underwrote her general appearance as a capital and maintenance. But they’re scandals of different orders.

And finally, I’m asking not because I know but because I don’t. While I’m happy the brouhaha is helping to further gut a thoroughly noisome campaign for a morally and philosophically bankrupt platform I care about the cost mainly because the price tag itself seems like a sensational (woo, what a golddigger) and misleading (what’s the infrastructure cost in terms of staff, transportation, consultants) celebrity sideshow.

Update: Someone at the The New York Times has evidently looked into the dresser angle as well. Based on that story the narratives would be yeah, there’s at least one dresser involved. Or else expense-report padding. Which would also fit an emerging narrative about the Palin’s casual attitude towards per-diems and expense reimbursement but my guess is still on the campaign consultant/dresser hypothesis. (Via Yglesias.)

Update: Heh. And BarbinMD of Daily Kos says

When you look at it in that light, it makes perfect sense. Palin was dealing with the vast differences in temperature seen across the 50 states swing states in late summer. From the mid 80’s in Florida, to the low 80’s in North Carolina, from the high 70’s in Ohio, to the mid 70’s in Missouri, a different wardrobe was needed to deal with the extreme temperature changes from state to state.  

And when you think about it, this $150,000 was a small price to pay to get the Republican Party to finally talk about climate change.

Read the quote in context here.