Who's the elitist? Cindy's outfit = $300,000

[goddess40]

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/09/cindy-mccains-300000-outfit.html

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

[marylanddem]

1. this is just sickening self-indulgence. but all the expensive clothes

in the world can't compensate for a husband who calls you the C word.

[laststeamtrain]

2. K & R: Pic of the Cat Women from Mars

[Lerkfish]

8. we're SCREWN! an unholy alliance of skeletor and the Joker!

[SeattleVet]

18. Good grief! They *paid* for that?

I think they may have gotten ripped off by a knockoff. Looks more like "Oscar de la Rental".

[AZBlue]

25. Laura: "Come on you doped up hussy, let's get this over with.

Wait, did someone switch on my auto-smile yet?"

[phantom power]

3. Democrats don't properly understand what the GOP means by "elitist."

In GOP-speak, "elitist" means "cultural/educated elite," specifically the kind who looks down his nose at Joe SixPack Republican. Joe Sixpack thinks Cindy McCain is awesome, because he hopes he's going to be rich someday too.

[ieoeja]

10. So when the Republics where standing out the White House in January 2001 chanting ...

"At last the hillbillies are gone! At last the hillbillies are gone!"

They weren't being elitist?


When they deride "Welfare Mothers," they aren't being elitist?

When they mock "community organizers", are they not being elitist?

Is racism not elitist?

[phantom power]

14. I'm not accusing them of being logically consistent...

Here's another angle on the same idea, which you can see includes some interplay with racism:

So this year the argument for voting Republican is the same that it has been since Nixon---a cadre of demonized people (non-white people, loose women, homosexuals, feminists, atheists, Muslims, people who read books that lack the reassuring presence of firearms mentions on every other page) who think they’s so great are about to win and make you, Joe White Voter, feel like even more of a loser than you are. So show them that this is still Asshole America and vote for McCain. Unfortunately, this sort of argument can be shockingly effective. It’s Mario Kart politics, of the blue turtle shell philosophy. The blue turtle shell is the most asshole of all weapons. Most weapons confer some strategic advantage on the bearer. Other colored turtle shells tend to take out people in your immediate vicinity, so that you can pull some places ahead. Mushrooms give you a boost of speed. Banana peels keep those behind you from catching up and passing you. But the blue turtle shell? All that does is fuck up the guy in the front, without conferring advantage to anyone but maybe the guy right behind him. It doesn’t help you.

Much, perhaps most, of the Republican voters are people of privilege who openly cling to that privilege and it’s purely a vote of self-interest. Most working class people still vote Democratic. But the middle class tends to split nearly 50/50. They’re up for grabs. And this “be resentful/be afraid” dog and pony show is for them. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote an interesting book in the 80s called Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, and what’s brilliant about it is that she put her finger on why middle class Americans relate so strongly to fear. It’s because our position in the middle class is tenuous. That’s even more true nowadays. People without health insurance worry about getting sick. But so do people with health insurance, who carry the knowledge that the coverage they’ve been buying all those years may end up being an illusion yanked on a technicality. It’s easy to dismiss people with full time jobs, the ability to purchase cars and make rent, and college degrees. But their fear is very real. They are one paycheck away. Some cope by pursuing hope---if we vote Democratic long enough, one day we’ll get enough power to rebuild the liberal state that made a stable middle class a reality in the mid-20th century.

But Republicans chip off a lot by saying, “Look, here’s a blue turtle shell.” You may not pull ahead into that secure 1st place, but you can fuck someone up and that feels good, right? Of course, the irony here is that even the blue turtle shell in Mario Kart is less asshole-y than the blue turtle shell politics. In the game, the shell always takes out the person in first place. But Republican politics are all about building a fortress around that class of people. You get to fuck shit up by voting Republican, but only by putting people deemed “uppity” in their place. This is the key to understanding how the right wing noise machine wins people over.

Take the McCain ad that showed the throngs of people who turn out to hear Obama speak, and juxtaposed him with women who are famous for being disobedient. You just knew that it was some loud racist dog whistling, but it was too easy to latch onto the hints of sexuality in it. I’ve been convinced by a couple of interviews---Adam Serwer on Counterspin and Bryant Welch on my own Reality Cast---that the point of pairing off Obama with these women and focusing on his celebrity was to argue that he’s, well, uppity. Showing the crowds and Obama makes the argument---ohmigodblackmanhassomethingyoudonthave!---but including Paris Hilton drives home the point. Above all, Paris Hilton symbolizes someone who has a lot and deserves nothing. She is this symbol to all Americans, left or right. Right wingers think she should be living in a gutter, cast out because she’s a sexual woman who doesn’t seem to feel an ounce of shame over it. But even more liberal Americans flinch at her vapidity. She is an icon of undeserving. Associating her with Obama is saying he’s undeserving, an argument that’s mainly made on unspoken racism, because Obama’s actual experience would be considered more than enough if he were white. The argument is the same as the Helms’ “Hands” ad: The black person has something you don’t have. Clearly, you deserve it more. Why? Because you’re white and first in line.

http://pandagon.net/index.php/site/comments/mario_kart_politics/

[phantom power]

15. 95% of it is the diamonds.

[anigbrowl]

19. What we mean and what they mean are two different things

IN GOP-land, having a PhD but an average income makes you an elitist, ivory-tower dweller. Liking Sushi and other foreign food makes you an elitist (the implication being that you don't like American food). And so on.

And no, they're not consistent: witness Rudy Guiliani picking on Obama and suggesting he doesn't think Wasilla is 'cosmopolitan' enough, when Rudy flamed out spectacularly in the primaries because he was too much of a city boy to actually go and campaign in places like Iowa. I seriously doubt Rudy ever goes to a restaurant that sells food for less than $50/plate, but when he's on the stump it's a different story.

[Igel]

17. I agree with the "look down his nose" bit.

That's an important part of the definition.

"Being among the elite" is not the same, for me, as "elitist". One is a simple statement of status, assets, or background; the other is a statement of attitudes and beliefs. Being wealthy or smart doesn't much matter in being elitist. "Looking down one's nose" speaks to attitude and beliefs.

The two terms are getting hopelessly muddled, of course, because reporters don't bother checking references and others have a vested interest in confounding the differences for their own ends. And because it's not always an easy distinction to make--most prominent elitists are also elite.

[goddess40]

20. They mean "uppity" in every racially nasty way imaginable

"Joe Sixpack thinks Cindy McCain is awesome, because he hopes he's going to be rich someday too." You are sooooo right on with this statement, it's the reason my husband voted republican for years, then he got smart.

By sixpack you mean beer not abs of steel, right?

[phantom power]

21. In my case? Beer. Definitely beer.

Not abs.

[HereSince1628]

4. Being rich and materialistic and being elitist isn't the same thing to me

Cindy's on and then off arm cast betrays more elitism to me than her earrings. She doesn't want to get touched by the baser parts of the GOP.

$300,000 earrings just say she has way more money than most of us and spends some of it on big dollar items. No news there.

[Cha]

5. Ye gods..and it still didn't make her

decent.

[Barack_America]

6. Will she be donating her wardrobe to help the victims of Gustav?

She did wear that while she asked for donations, didn't she?

Just imagine how much she could help the victims if she put her clothes on the e-bay!

(I won't hold my breath)

[SheilaT]

7. And worse yet,

they both look as if they'd benefit a great deal from going on "What Not To Wear".

[Bill219]

9. Don't forget about Palin's librarian look glasses

The Palin frame, minus the lenses, starts at a suggested $375

[JohnnyBoots]

11. Put that in a comercial with McCane cancelling a Habitat for Humanity event and you got a winner.

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. Her outfit could build 4 houses for Habitat for Humanity

I guess that's why McCain cancel his appearance with them

[Chloroplast]

13. Vanity Fair is wrong: Cindy's watch is $70,000. You'd think THEY'D get it right. Sheesh.

[Gregorian]

16. Yes, but that's what republicans aspire to.

We want to change hearts and minds. It's not going to be easy. They want for themselves. We want for the world.

Maybe Obama's exemplary behavior will win some over. I don't expect much from the zombies though.

[Fox Mulder]

22. Well, Cindy got ripped-off on that dress.

I wouldn't wipe my ass with that thing.

[Cleita]

23. Laura still looks like a sack of potatoes and

Cindy, poor Cindy, comes off looking like either a Christmas tree or a brothel madame.

[sakura]

28. The irony is that Michelle O. could wear the sack (from the potatoes) and still look amazing.

[ronnykmarshall]

24. and it was ugly as hell!

[RiverStone]

26. Hard to fathom one night's evening wear for Cindy is worth more than my house!

And I only have one house.

[sakura]

27. Someone at Oscar de la Renta is laughing right now.

They must have some sales staff to have been able to talk her into a dress like that. ("Psst! Cindy's here! Show her the leftovers from last season-- she'll buy anything expensive!") On her, that dress looks absolutely hideous-- you see the dress, not the person. You'd think as an heiress she'd have someone to tell her these things. She does not have the coloring for warm shades, especially with her frightful, bleached blonde hair. There are few people who could pull off that look, either-- you would need to have the right undertone in your skin and hair to pull off that color and a bold attitude to wear that style. It would also help to be curvaceous. Oprah would look good in that dress, and Bette Midler, I think. That's about it.