Double Standards

There has been a lot of scrutiny over the Republic National Party's campaign budget this week, with  much of the focus being directed toward money spent on the Republican Vice Presidential nominees wardrobe.

I can understand why people would find spending $150,000 on Sarah Palin's makeover outlandish, but before you get too worked up about this story, check out this video (below) with CNN's Campbell Brown.  It's short and simple, but definitely points out the very realistic double standard behind this makeover criticism.  And I gotta agree with CNN.  

I know they could have merely sent Palin to H&M and White House Black Market, places where people like Michelle Obama shop for campaign attire, but I'm guessing the Republicans are probably just not taking any chances, ensuring Palin is of equal caliber (erm, at least appearance-wise) as anyone else she may come face-to-face with.  

And OK, yes, 150,000 US dollars is a *ridiculous* sum of money to spend on appearances (and there may be some hypocrisy involved), but I've also heard that John McCain's stylist (the girl primping him up before the Katie Couric interview he cancelled on Letterman for) gets paid a whopping $4,000 EACH TIME she applies make-up for an appearance.  I guess you can charge that when you've worked for Britney Spears, but seriously, had you heard about McCain's makeup fund before right now?  Probably not.  

As far as the focus is concerned, Campbell's got a point:

With two weeks left in this election, we really should try to stick to the real issues.  

Even without seeing all the negative campaigning (commercials) on television, the vilification that has characterized this election so far certainly does seem  to seep across international borders easily enough (and definitely goes both ways)...