realthog: (leavingfortusa)
realthog ([personal profile] realthog) wrote2008-09-05 08:16 pm

the fashion plate


As you might expect, I spend most of my leisure hours combing the pages of Vanity Fair. And what should I come across but this spellbinding piece of haut couture analysis:

One of the persistent memes in the Republican line of attack against Barack Obama is the notion that he is an elitist, whereas the G.O.P. represent real working Americans like Levi “F-in’ Redneck” Johnston.

It caught our attention, then, when First Lady Laura Bush and would-be First Lady Cindy McCain took the stage Tuesday night wearing some rather fancy designer clothes. So we asked our fashion department to price out their outfits.

Laura Bush
Oscar de la Renta suit: $2,500
Stuart Weitzman heels: $325
Pearl stud earrings: $600–$1,500
Total: Between $3,425 and $4,325

Cindy McCain
Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100

Wow! No wonder McCain has so many houses: his wife has the price of a Scottsdale split-level hanging from her ears.

ext_13461: Foxes Frolicing (Default)

[identity profile] al-zorra.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 12:36 am (UTC)(link)
Women who are far more acquainted with such things than me say those earrings were probably not that expensive. Three carats, even of the first and best water diamonds, just aren't going to make nearly a 3rd of million. Should probably shift that down about a 90 - 100 thou at least. So they say.

What would I know, sans 7 houses, airplanes, millions of dollars of inhertance?

Love, C.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 12:41 am (UTC)(link)

"Should probably shift that down about a 90 - 100 thou at least."

Real Woolworths, then.
ext_59010: This looks like the mountains where I live. (Default)

[identity profile] quilterbear.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
*snort*

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 06:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Woolworth's of Hollywood.

[identity profile] sarcobatus.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
I agree about the earrings. If she spent almost $300,000 on diamond earrings only 3 carats each, even if they are flawless and white, she was robbed. I'd put her total outfit at $150,000 tops, nothing extravagant. ;P

Laura Bush is the true conservative here. Wow. Cindy McCain really is a maverick, and a liberal in disguise! ;)

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 01:29 pm (UTC)(link)

Actually, it's perfectly possible she was overcharged: someone that rich, they don't care if they pay a hundred grand over the odds for their earrings.

If the $5-an-hour gardener slopes off ten minutes early, however . . .

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:07 pm (UTC)(link)
That's because gardener's are sixpence a dozen down in Michoacán.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)

"Michoacán"

Of course! That's where the name McCain comes from! It's just that the spelling's been corrupted over the years -- was originally "M'c'cán".

Now I understand . . .

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
You're saying he keeps her grass neatly mown?

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)

"You're saying he keeps her grass neatly mown?"

I can't think as I've heard it thus described before, but . . .

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
:-)

[identity profile] nballingrud.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
Jesus H. The hypocrisy is just so shameless. It's literally breathtaking.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)

It sort of goes alongside the breathtaking brazenness of their telling the same whoppers over and over again during their convention speeches, even though everyone except the television pundits knows these are lies.

The one that took my breath away the most was probably the most trivial: Palin saying that Obama has written two memoirs. Fact-check: Obama has written one memoir; the candidate who's written two is, er, John McCain.

Why would the Repugs feel the need to lie about something so tangential? Who knows? Maybe they're all like Nixon and lie even when they don't have to, just for practice?

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Because if they repeat the lie often enough it acquires truthiness.

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
And I think I'm splurging when I buy my wife $50 earrings. Clearly, I have no class.

[identity profile] realthog.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)

"I think I'm splurging when I buy my wife $50 earrings"

I didn't know they made earrings that expensive. Please don't tell Pam!

[identity profile] fledgist.livejournal.com 2008-09-06 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay, I won't.