In the absence of substance, image truly is everything, as the old ad campaign said.  So perhaps that’s why the disclosure that Sarah Palin took $150,000 of Republican Party money and went on a shopping spree for designer clothes (at of all places Neiman Marcus) is such a damaging little news tidbit.  Image and facade are all Sarah Palin have left with the under 50% crowd she still has fooled.  But those people want to see her in their mind’s eye in a furry parka shooting a moose, not in a changing room asking her handlers, “does this Missoni make me look fat?”  

No, it is not an issue of global significance, but how many game changers in recent presidential politics were?  Was Willie Horton on a par with Osama bin Laden?  Was George Bush Sr.’s bewilderment over a supermarket checkout scanner a matter of national importance?  Of course not.  But both incidents created a perception that ultimately proved toxic.

When your party-supplied clothing allowance exceeds Joe The Plumber’s annual salary, you’ve got a PR problem on your hands.  How can Palin now go out and position herself as the champion of the little guy who shops at Wal*Mart when she morphs from Joe Six-Pack into Madame Cliquot.  Most hockey moms I know do not wear Oscar de la Renta.

With less than two weeks to go, and the McCain camp in need of some traction, Palin’s clothing issue represents the black ice newly discovered under the rear tires.  Even if the story struggles to occupy a full news cycle, it’s already been a distraction and compromises the GOP sincerity when they play the empathy card for financially strapped Americans.