What their shoes say about the candidates

Remember when Condi Rice was said to have been shoe shopping at Ferragamo's on Fifth Avenue while New Orleans drowned?

The story goes that three days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall and breached the levees, Ms Rice was on holiday in New York spending several thousand dollars on shoes. In the midst of footwear heaven she was approached by an irate woman who yelled "How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!" Ms Rice is said to have had security remove the angry shopper from the store.

Remember when McCain's $520 Ferragamo loafers made the news? John McCain and his expensive shoes in the cheese aisle talking to "ordinary people" about the price of milk (with cue cards to remind him how much a gallon of milk actually costs).

That was the week Obama was off on his overseas trip, speaking to a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin, while McCain was stuck on a golf cart with Bush Senior - looking for all the world like an out-of-touch old geezer ready for retirement.

Then there was Sarah Palin and her $150,000 clothes bill. That one just ran and ran for days and days... maybe I'll just remind you how the story went:

• RNC shells out $150K for Palin fashion


• Palin Clothes Spending Has Dems Salivating, Republicans Disgusted


• Republicans Disgusted By RNC Spending On Palin


• The Hockey Mom With A $150K Wardrobe


• Sarah Palin, freeloader


• Sarah Palin's Personal Shopper


• $150,000 Wardrobe for Palin May Alter Tailor-Made Image


• Pricey new duds aren't helping Palin in polls


• After a $150,000 Makeover, Sarah Palin Has an Image Problem


• Palin denies accepting $150K in designer clothes


• Top Salary in McCain Camp? Palin’s Makeup Stylist

Now let's look at Barack Obama's shoes. This is part of a wonderful photo collection by Callie Shell called Obama:

Senator Obama was doing press interviews by telephone in a holding room between events. Sometime later as he was getting ready to begin his event, he asked me if I was photographing his shoes. When I said yes, he told me that he had already had them resoled once since he entered the race a year earlier. Providence, R.I., 3/1/2008.

So let me see...

We have Condi Rice spending thousands in shoes as New Orleans and its people are drowning. We have John McCain in $520 Ferragamo loafers talking to "real people" about the price of milk. We have the Republican Party spending more on Sarah Palin's wardrobe in 3 months than an average family would spend in a lifetime...

...and we have Barack Obama in shoes with holes in them that he's already had resoled once - and which he's been wearing for at least a year.

Who's most in touch with ordinary people again?

Technorati tags: shoes, Condoleezza Rice, Condi Rice, Ferragamo shoes, New York, New Orleans, John McCain, McCain, Ferragamo loafers, $520, cheese aisle, golf cart, George HW Bush, Sarah Palin, Palin, $150, 000, clothes, wardrobe, Barack Obama, Barack, Obama, shoes, resoled, holes in his shoes, Callie Shell, photos, US presidential election, US politics, WebWeaver's World, webweaver.