The View's Elisabeth Hasselbeck says the focus on Sarah Palin's wardrobe has been blown out of proportion. Last week it was revealed that the Republican National Committee shelled out more than $150,000 to dress the hockey mom. (Palin said the clothes were not worth that amount; John McCain said her designer duds will be donated to charity after the election.)
"Who is the real Sarah Palin? The Wal-Mart hockey mom or a clothes horse?" The View's Joy Behar asked on Monday's show. Hasselbeck – who introduced Palin at a rally in Florida Sunday – said they "talked" about the issue … and that Palin is "not a fashionista, by any means." "She called Jimmy Choos Johnny Choos," Hasselbeck said.
Barbara Walters said the scrutiny isn't necessarily "Sarah Palin's fault. "I think this is the Republican party's fault. … I traveled all over the country, took black pants, a black skirt and three jackets and did not have to spend that kind of money," she said. Behar added that Palin could've said, "'I don't want to wear those clothes because I'm presenting myself as this Wal-Mart hockey mom.'" Walters also mentioned that Hasselbeck may have thought the attention on clothes was sexist, but she still addressed it at Sunday's rally instead of dropping it. "I wanted it to end," Hasselbeck explained. At the rally, Hasselbeck said the focus on Palin's clothes was "deliberately sexist." Palin told the roaring crowd that her jacket at the Sunday's rally was from her "favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska." She added that the wedding ring from her husband Todd is "a $35 wedding ring from Hawaii that I bought myself …'cause I always thought with my ring, it's not what it's made of, it's what it represents and 20 years later, [I'm] happy to wear it."
