Selected as John McCain's running mate partly for her folksiness, Palin and her no-frills hockey-mom image took a hit when news broke that the Alaska governor cum vice-presidential candidate was wearing clothes that cost more than a 3-bedroom house in Wasilla. Campaign finance reports released in October showed that the Republican National Committee spent $75,062 at Neiman Marcus and $49,425 at Saks Fifth Avenue in September to outfit Palin and her family in designer duds. The McCain campaign said the clothes would be donated to charity after the election. When Palin made a post-election speech to Republican governors, she seemed to have gotten over the fuss. "I had a baby," she updated the audience on what she'd been doing since last year's meeting. "I did some traveling; I very briefly expanded my wardrobe."