Quick Fact: On Oprah, Palin repeats falsehood that media didn't criticize “other candidates” over fashion

Written by Jeremy Holden

Published

During an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Palin trumpeted the false claim from her memoir, Going Rogue, that criticism over reports that the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 to clothe and accessorize Palin and her family represented a “double standard,” because “it wasn't a controversy with other candidates.” In fact, Democratic primary candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and John Edwards were repeatedly criticized for their clothing and hair.

Palin falsely claims fashion “wasn't a controversy with other candidates

PALIN: It was, practically speaking, ”Oh, good," because I don't like to shop, and that's going to be one less thing for me to have to worry about -- never thinking that it was going to a big controversy, because it wasn't a controversy with other candidates, and, “Where did they get their clothes?” and “Who's styling their hair?” and all that. That was a double standard, too, that I talk about in the book. [The Oprah Winfrey Show, 11/16/09]

Fact: Media routinely criticized Dems over fashion and “styling their hair”

Edwards, Obama, Clinton, and Biden were subjected to frequent scrutiny about their hair, makeup, or clothes. During the Democratic primary, the media devoted significant attention to Edwards' “expensive” haircuts -- which were brought up by moderators in two Democratic presidential debates in 2007 -- to Obama's clothing, including during the April 16, 2008, presidential debate and in a Washington Post article stating: “One of the most distinctive elements of Barack Obama's public style comes down to what he so often is not wearing: patriotism on his sleeve”; to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton's clothing, including linking Clinton's “bright colors” to a “likability problem” and calling attention to her neckline; and to questions over whether Biden had “taken steps to pre-empt baldness.”