Party Dress

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“Miss Alaska! Get a white sash with powder-blue lettering: Miss Alaska on the front, Miss Vice-President on the back. Throw on a wig and glasses.” —Todd Kenig, CEO of Ricky’s NYC

“If you go as Sarah Palin, people will just think you’re Tina Fey. But you could go in an eighties Sarah Palin costume, from her basketball era. And bring lots of babies! And even babies holding other babies!” —Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times

“Yes, Tina Fey may have done it better than you, but if you’re a brunette with long hair, you too can be Sarah Palin. Just add a twist:
Sarah Palin with a rifle (and a moose with a target on its back)Sarah Palin with a rifle (and John McCain with a target on his back)”—Rachel Sklar, Huffington Post

“There will be so many Sarah Palin–with–a–hunting–rifle costumes that, to be original, dress up as Palin’s knocked-up 17-year-old daughter, Bristol. All you need is a prairie dress and a pillow underneath it. Maybe carry cookies from Bristol Farms so no one confuses you with a pre-baby Jamie Lynn Spears.” —Peter Davis, Paper

“Forget the candidates, I’d just sling on my hockey jersey, grab a date and a doll (or a really sleepy baby), and hit the street as Levi Johnston.” —S.T. VanAirsdale, Defamer

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“You could be a handsome, just–released–from–Vietnam War–prison–camp McCain: brown, sixties trousers, light-blue button-up, and a leather belt, hands holding a light-tan sport jacket at your side.” —Pamela Moore, sales associate at Fabulous Fanny’s

“McCain is hard, with the war hand, the cancer cheek—you don’t want to do that.” —Joel Stein

“What about John McCain as the Skipper in Gilligan’s Island?” —Peter Davis

“For Cindy McCain, one needs only a bottle of Budweiser, a country-music bouffant wig, and string of fake pearls. A bottle of pills is optional and functional but maybe cruel. Also, demon fire for eyes, but that is hard to find.” —Joshua David Stein, Page Six Magazine

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“You could go as Rat Pack–cool Obama: Wear a white button-down shirt, a skinny tie, black sixties horn-rimmed sunglasses, and a fedora. Then put on an Obama mask.” —Pamela Moore

“Loincloth (white sheet); halo (one of those glow-stick things from raves and Dave Matthews concerts), sandals.” —Joshua David Stein

“It’s kind of hard to go as Obama, especially if you’re not black. You always think, This is the year it’s acceptable to go blackface—but no, no, it’s not. Please, no coal on your body. Just get a mask. I also like the conceptual costumes. You could go as a secretly racist voter! I don’t know how you’d do that, though.” —Joel Stein

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“Go as car salesman Joe Biden: Grab your hair, and slick it all the way back. Get really close to everyone you talk to and touch them a lot! And refer to yourself in the third person.” —Joel Stein

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Party Dress