Fashion and politics intersect during Fashion Week, this glossy convergence of the better-dressed members of the chattering class.

Here is a conversation between three haute fashion types waiting for the extraordinary Marc Jacobs fashion show to begin. (A Democrat, Jacobs referenced Gibson Girls, suffragettes, the original version of “The Women” and as The Times’s Cathy Horyn was first to notice, Yves Saint Laurent’s 1978 “Broadway Suit” collection which celebrated Afro-American culture.)

Fashionista A: Did you see that VanityFair.com thing that said Cindy McCain was wearing over $300,000 on her back when she appeared with Laura Bush onstage at the Republican Convention?

Fashionista B: I did. The breakdown of the Oscar de la Renta dress and the Chanel watch seemed accurate, but three-carat diamond earrings for $280,000? Do three-carat diamond earrings really cost that much?

Fashionista C: No. Well, maybe. From Harry Winston.

Fashionista A: I don’t see what the problem is even if she was wearing that much on her back. It is not like she walked down Rodeo Drive and plunked down, as Paris Hilton might, a ton of dough for her outfit. Cindy was wearing an accumulation of better clothing and accessories. America is so hypocritical about money. Isn’t the entire Republican platform all about the accumulation and protection of wealth?

Fashionista B: Cindy McCain still needs a lot of help. When she wears her hair down, it is a disaster. The color is awful on TV. And she wears the worst shoes.

Fashionista C: She is very pretty in person.    

Fashionista A: I will remember that when she invites me to lunch.

Fashionista B: I’ll tell you who just blows me away is Michelle Obama. Ohmigod, her dress for the last night of the Democratic Convention was brilliant! Thakoon! [Name of one of New York’s trendiest young designers.] How amazing was it that she wore Thakoon? She really is the new Jackie Kennedy, totally fashion forward.

Fashionista C: I adore Sarah Palin. She is so camp. She’s so funny. I love the hockey-mom drag.

Fashionistas A and B are not convinced.

Fashionsita B: She isn’t setting any trends here.

Fashionista C: Not yet. But you know Italian Vogue will do some ironic photo shoot inspired by her. And the hair is getting better. Been softer all week. And the glasses! The are so nerdy I love them!

Fashionista A: Are those good frames she wears? [Good is a synonym for important as in a brands we like.]

Fashionista B: According to Maureen Dowd, they are.   

Fashionista C: Kawasaki 704s …

Fashionista A: You’re obsessed!   

Fashionista B: This is serious. This is substance over style! What if she ends up president if anything happens to McCain?

Fashionista C: That will never happen.

You won’t find a lot of support for the Republican platform inside the tents. Does this surprise you? After all, this is a community founded on the style principles of Paris, not Wasilla. (The Etceterist would like to be on record as having visited Alaska this summer and falling in love with the state so nothing of the following is comment on the state of Alaska, just perhaps the state of mind of the governor.) Not just mousse versus moose, but United Colors of Benetton as opposed to United Colors of Our Way or The Highway (the right wing anti-gay thing, both implicit or explicit, just doesn’t fly here in fashionland, OK, except when someone is furious with their hairdresser).

Even if Sarah Palin was profiled in Vogue long before she was a twinkle in John McCain’s campaign chest, her word to Vogue was she dressed, on purpose, as frumpily as she could. Is this compelling fashion news for fashion people? She’s a fashion refusenik who has never been to Europe, or even the East Village. And now she is America’s mascot for the happy national movement to celebrate all things dumbed down, the putdown of higher education and intellectual inquiry … never mind that the worldly Benjamin Franklin must be turning over in his grave but what about Diana Vreeland up there in her suite in heaven’s Ritz!?

With the exception of the occasional person such as Fashionista C grooving on the novelty of the Palin visual over the seriousness of the Palin message, Fashion Week is Obama territory. To wit, Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker helped organize a launch party Tuesday night at designer Charles Nolan’s studio for “Runway to Change.” This is a consortium of designers, including Tory Burch, Beyonce and Tina Knowles, Marc Jacobs, Isaac Mizrahi, Alexander Wang, Zac Posen, Diane Von Fürstenberg and Vera Wang, among others, who have created special edition Obama-themed items that can be bought to raise money for his campaign. (For more information check the candidate’s website.)

En route to the event, the Etceterist happened upon Sam Shaffer, big honcho with the international IMG marketing and media agency. We asked Sam if Sarah Palin was enough of a star now that, should she not become vice president and wanted to get into product endorsement, what kind of money she would command?

“Oh, seven figures per deal for sure,” Sam said.

The problem he saw most immediately would be reconciling her base of devoted supporters to the commercial appeal she would have in a much broader sense, meaning her comic timing. “Her message is so anti-intellectual,” Sam said, wondering what products she might best endorse. “Perhaps she is just the celebrity the automobile industry needs to revive the SUV business?”

See also Debbie Dickinson’s wowOwow Fashion Week interviews with designers Diane von Fürstenberg and Michael Vollbracht on looking great after 40.