Yes, while you were fretting over your 401k, Sarah Palin was out buying $150,000 worth of clothes at Neiman Marcus and Saks. Gosh, she’s so much like you and me, you betcha.

From The Atlantic’s Ambinder:

There is already an attempt to blame the media — as in, the liberal media would have looked askance at Palin if she wasn’t clad in Neiman Marcus, but this won’t wash. Republicans, RNC donors and at least one RNC staff member have e-mailed me tonight to share their utter (and not-for-attribution) disgust at the expenditures.

This sort of spending is without precedent — the closest approximation for any campaign I’ve ever covered is make-up expenses for television interviews and commercial shoots….

[T]he heat for this story will come from Republicans who cannot understand how their party would do something this stupid … particularly (and, it must be said, viewed etroactively) during the collapse of the financial system and the probable beginning of a recession.