Sunday Elizabeth Hasselbeck,  from the televised coffee-klatch The View, introduced Sarah Palin to crowds in Florida, and both conservative fashionistas had harsh words for Palin’s wardrobe detractors. Said perky Elizabeth:

Instead of the issues, they are focused, fixated on her wardrobe. Now, with everything going on in the world, seems a bit odd. But let me tell you, this is deliberately sexist. I know you know that.

After loud applause from the crowd, many of whom were not so fasionably dressed in tee shirts reading "Got Sarah?," "Palin Power," and "Read My Lipstick: McCain/Palin." The candidate herself was dressed in a simple pale pink jacket the she allegedly owned before the campaign and said that she was wearing beaded earrings handmade by her mother-in-law; a $35 wedding ring from Hawaii that she had bought herself; and a flag pin,  which she wears in honor of her son Track, who is stationed in Iraq.

Refering to the $150,000 worth of fancy go-to-meetin’ duds bought for her and her family via the RNC, Gov GILF explained to the audience:

Those clothes, they are not my property. Just like the lighting and the staging and everything else that the R.N.C. purchased. I’m not taking them with me. I’m back to wearing my own clothes from my favorite consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska.

Thursday Palin revealed that shop to be Out of the Closet in Anchorage, which, according to the New York Times, offers “affordable high-end designer labels and brands not otherwise available in Anchorage,” like Prada, Armani and Gucci. The store’s website is no longer online.

 John McCain defended his running mate and the RNC on Meet the Press, but seemed confused, saying:

Look, she lives a frugal life. She and her family are not wealthy. She and her family were thrust into this, and there was some — and some third of that money is given back. The rest will be donated to charity.

Tracey Schmitt, a spokeswoman for Ms. Palin, said Sunday that a third of the clothes were "returned" (unworn it seemes) right after the convention, rather than  "some third of that money given back."