Kind of a drag: Palin's negatives outweigh George Bush's in new poll

How bad does it get when your negative ratings outweigh George Bush's ratings. A new NBC/Wall St. Journal poll shows that Palin's qualifications to be president rank as voters' top concern about John McCain's candidacy. Concerns about Palin rank higher than continuing President Bush's policies, enacting economic policies that only benefit the rich and keeping too many troops in Iraq.

Along with the bad poll news, today we learn the Republican National Committee (RNC) spent $150,000 in the last month on clothes and makeup for Palin, including a $50,000 spending spree at Saks Fifth Avenue and a $75,000 bonanza at Neiman Marcus.

Palin received more new duds in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were the cost of health care for 15 or so people. A review of similar records for the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee turned up no similar spending.

A McCain campaign spokeswoman, Maria Comella, declined to answer questions about the spending spree but said:

“The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent."

Since when are clothes and makeup "strategic?" Palin's new clothes fetish certainly goes against the Populist message she and McCain have been preaching. Their outlandish spending on frivolous items is a long way from Joe and Jane Six Packs and Joe and Jane the Plumbers. The only person who could relate to that kind of spending is Cindy McCain who spent $300,000 on her outfit for the Republican Convention.

I say let Palin keep her new baubles and send her back to Alaska with a new title: Best-dressed citizen in Wasilla.