Palin wardrobe controversy heightens - Todd is a cheapo!

No one is calling Todd Palin cheap or anything, but Todd.... 35 bucks for a wedding ring?

Sarah Palin threw her husband under the bus today and emboldened cheap husbands and boyfriends everywhere by announcing her wedding ring cost $35.  Note that there are no commas in that figure.  Those two numbers stand together.  A three followed by a five.  Then a period.  35 bucks.

On top of this, she announced that Todd didn't even buy it.  She bought it herself.  Maybe this is why the Anchorage Daily News endorsed Barack Obama today.

Financial advice

Are the poll numbers this bad that she is doling out personal financial advice hoping to get a gig on CNBC?

No, she was just bringing up an issue that her campaign doesn't like the media to cover.  The wardrobe issue.

Ever since Politico's report that the Republican National Committee doled out $150,000 for Palin's clothes and accessories, it's been a big topic on the campaign trail.   Every wardrobe malfunction joke thought to have been dead and buried since the 2004  Super Bowl has regretfully come back to life.

Palin's view

Today, campaigning with The View co-host Joy Behar Elisabeth Hasselbeck in Tampa, the topic of clothes was again addressed.  First by Hasselbeck.

The morning talk show star tore into the media, alleging that reporters would prefer not to cover Palin's record in Alaska, her credentials in energy policy, or her role in negotiating a $40 billion natural- gas line deal in Alaska.

To a chorus of boos, Hasselbeck said the media is "fixated on her wardrobe" instead.

"Let me tell you this is deliberately sexist," Hasselbeck said, before discussing the part of Palin's wardrobe she believes the media should focus on.

"I'm most impressed by her accessories, you know, like the flag pin she wears in honor of her son and our military -- men and women -- fighting abroad.  And they fight for our every right to be here today," she added.

Where I shop

Palin told the crowd when deciding what to wear this morning that she grabbed "her own jacket," emphasizing it was hers.  Then she thanked Hasselbeck for bringing the issue up as it gave her the opportunity to discuss it "without the filter of the media."

"Those clothes - they are not my property," she explained.  "Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else the RNC purchases.  I'm not taking them with me."

Her clothes

The clothes she was wearing came from her "favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska" Palin announced.

Then she took husband Todd and turned him into a goat in less than 10 seconds.

"My wedding ring, it's in Todd's pocket cause it hurts sometimes when I shake hands and it gets squished,” Palin told a crowd in Tampa, Florida. "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, happy to wear it."

There would be few who would argue that it's not the ring, it's what the ring symbolizes.  And after 20 years of marriage, who can argue with her.

But over the course of those 20 years, perhaps an upgrade is in order?  Come on Todd...