Palin donkey scarf origins (sort of) explained by photographer

Why Sarah Palin would don a Democratic-themed donkey scarf at at Oct. 21 rally in Reno, Nev., remains the deepest of fashion mysteries, but the photograph of her with said accessory has already become overexposed in the blogosphere.

NEWSWEEK first spotted the devious designs draping the veep candidate on Getty Images' wire services in a series of photos taken by Max Whittaker, a Sacramento, Calif.-based freelancer. A brief Stumper post later, the photo was soon snapped up by hundreds of blogs, including Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo and Media Bistro.

Much speculation about the donkey scarf was tossed about the Internets, most of it snark-laden. "Is Sarah Palin This Amazingly Stupid?" was the headline of the Kos post, while the Belfast Telegraph headline chided, "Donkey wrong: Sarah Palin wears 'Vote Democrat' scarf at Republican rally". We may never know why Palin wore that scarf -- the press office in the McCain campaign hasn't returned our calls -- but 11-year photojournalist Whittaker gives us his take on the story:

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