Is a lot of money. Is more than the average middle class family can expect to earn in nearly three years. Is a lot of money to have campaign contributors give you for clothes, haircuts, and make-up.

The story of Governor Palin's "lifestyles of the rich and famous" make-over is so astoundingly at odds with the narrative of her authenticity, her "hockey mom" self-depiction, her "Joe sixpack" affinity that it can't fail to stun even her admirers.

I'm sure it's not comparable but for the record my haircuts cost $15.

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Here's a contribution from my friend Peter P. Swire:

As a professor of both banking regulation and technology policy, there are striking similarities between the anti-regulation positions of John McCain in these two key sectors. Under the pressure of the current financial crisis, McCain has recently backed off of his laissez faire positions and admitted that the government must play a greater role in housing and financial markets. His unrepentant positions on technology policy, however, reveal the intellectually flawed approach to government regulation that has led both to the financial mess and to mistakes in technology issues such as broadband deployment, net neutrality, and privacy online.

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