With thousands of American families losing their homes to foreclosure every week, it's depressing to see presidential candidates in a food fight about how many residences John McCain possesses and how much help Barack Obama got from a fixer in buying his own.
Technically, McCain may be homeless, since none of the eight places he hangs his hat belongs to him but to his wife, children and trusts she controls, but haggling about that may strike voters desperate to avoid losing the places they live as not quite relevant to their concerns.
The hoo-ha about homes is symptomatic of the freefall from focusing on issues and turning the election into a barroom brawl that Rovian Republicans started with their attack ads and McCain's badmouthing of Obama to which the Democrats are now responding with kneecapping of their own.
Ironically, it was Cindy McCain, owner of the houses and condos in question, who started out by making it clear that she and her husband kept their finances separate and that she had no intention of telling the world about her own.
At the same time, she was adamant that, after all the sliming her family suffered in 2000, that this campaign would be different.
“We'd rather not win than to have to do that,” Mrs. McCain said last spring. “That's not worth winning for. This is about being a leader and a person that can be a good example for our children, and a good role model. There are many, many, many more things to this job than just being the president. You are an example. You have to--you have to be better than that. You have to be.”
She said she had asked her husband after the 2000 race not to try again for the presidency if it meant enduring all the attacks and slanders. But here we are, and this time it's John McCain who has found a home with the Republican politics of personal destruction.
Showing posts with label Cindy McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cindy McCain. Show all posts
Friday, August 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
This Bud's for You, Mrs. McCain
The impending sale of Anheuser-Busch, brewer of Budweiser, to a Belgian conglomerate will make Cindy McCain much richer than she already is from her inherited distributorship, and the Wall Street Journal is busy toting up how much.
If her husband makes it to the White House, he won't be the first president with family money from the booze business. JFK's father, son of a Boston saloon keeper who went into politics, built his fortune on importing Scotch after Prohibition and, according to rumors, even during the period it was illegal.
Bluenoses who find such alcoholic connections objectionable may want to remember that all our current problems come from the fact that George W. Bush gave up drinking, found God and became intoxicated with presidential power.
In January, whether or not the McCains move into the White House, we can all raise a toast to his departure.
If her husband makes it to the White House, he won't be the first president with family money from the booze business. JFK's father, son of a Boston saloon keeper who went into politics, built his fortune on importing Scotch after Prohibition and, according to rumors, even during the period it was illegal.
Bluenoses who find such alcoholic connections objectionable may want to remember that all our current problems come from the fact that George W. Bush gave up drinking, found God and became intoxicated with presidential power.
In January, whether or not the McCains move into the White House, we can all raise a toast to his departure.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Obama-McCain Family Values
In warning Republicans to "lay off my wife" in their ads, Barack Obama yesterday was challenging John McCain to call off the dogs who are nipping at Michelle Obama just as they attacked Cindy McCain to give George W. Bush the nomination in 2000.
Opponents, Obama said on Good Morning America, "can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record. I've been in public life for 20 years," then added that if "they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful. Because that I find unacceptable."
The subtext of Obama's warning could be a reminder that, as late as last summer, Mrs. McCain was speaking out against such tactics, as the New York Times reported in an interview with her: "Ugly accusations about her family, she insisted, will not be tolerated this time. 'If that were to even bubble its head up again,' she said, "we’d knock that flat.'”
In 2000, the Rove smear machine attacked with slanders and push polls about everything from Mrs. McCain's one-time addiction to pain killers to rumors that their adopted daughter from Bangladesh was a black child McCain had fathered.
Eventually, Bridget, now 16, learned about that in a Google search of her name and went to her mother in tears. “She wanted to know why President Bush hated her,” Mrs. McCain said. “And I had to explain to her...how nasty campaigns can be.”
Now the question for the Republican candidate is: Can he control those same groups who also did the Swiftboat ads against John Kerry in 2004, which McCain publicly denounced?
On GMA, Obama praised his wife's patriotism and said that for Republicans "to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low class...especially for people who purport to be promoters of family values."
McCain no doubt agrees, but will the man who claims to be strong enough to protect Americans from their enemies abroad be able to shield them from the sleazebags who make those commercials?
Opponents, Obama said on Good Morning America, "can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record. I've been in public life for 20 years," then added that if "they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful. Because that I find unacceptable."
The subtext of Obama's warning could be a reminder that, as late as last summer, Mrs. McCain was speaking out against such tactics, as the New York Times reported in an interview with her: "Ugly accusations about her family, she insisted, will not be tolerated this time. 'If that were to even bubble its head up again,' she said, "we’d knock that flat.'”
In 2000, the Rove smear machine attacked with slanders and push polls about everything from Mrs. McCain's one-time addiction to pain killers to rumors that their adopted daughter from Bangladesh was a black child McCain had fathered.
Eventually, Bridget, now 16, learned about that in a Google search of her name and went to her mother in tears. “She wanted to know why President Bush hated her,” Mrs. McCain said. “And I had to explain to her...how nasty campaigns can be.”
Now the question for the Republican candidate is: Can he control those same groups who also did the Swiftboat ads against John Kerry in 2004, which McCain publicly denounced?
On GMA, Obama praised his wife's patriotism and said that for Republicans "to try to distort or to play snippets of her remarks in ways that are unflattering to her I think is just low class...especially for people who purport to be promoters of family values."
McCain no doubt agrees, but will the man who claims to be strong enough to protect Americans from their enemies abroad be able to shield them from the sleazebags who make those commercials?
Friday, May 09, 2008
Cindy McCain's Prenup With Us
Democrats clamoring for the Republican candidate's wife to release her tax returns are setting themselves up to look petty and peevish in an election that should be about Iraq, the US economy and our place in the world.
Voters know that Cindy McCain is a very rich woman who has inherited an estimated $100 million. Is hounding her for more detail any more admirable than the clamor in 2004 for Theresa Heinz Kerry to show us the money?
When they married, the McCains apparently signed a prenuptial agreement to keep their money separate, as many couples do in second marriages. Do we need to be more involved in her finances than her husband is?
Yes, yes, he traveled in her corporate jet during the campaign, and we should be sure that he did it as legally as any candidate uses such advantages.
But otherwise, it's hard to see how Mrs. McCain's money is any of the public's business. That she uses some of it for humanitarian purposes reflects well on her, but that too doesn't have much bearing on whether her husband is qualified to be president.
Voters know that Cindy McCain is a very rich woman who has inherited an estimated $100 million. Is hounding her for more detail any more admirable than the clamor in 2004 for Theresa Heinz Kerry to show us the money?
When they married, the McCains apparently signed a prenuptial agreement to keep their money separate, as many couples do in second marriages. Do we need to be more involved in her finances than her husband is?
Yes, yes, he traveled in her corporate jet during the campaign, and we should be sure that he did it as legally as any candidate uses such advantages.
But otherwise, it's hard to see how Mrs. McCain's money is any of the public's business. That she uses some of it for humanitarian purposes reflects well on her, but that too doesn't have much bearing on whether her husband is qualified to be president.
Friday, April 18, 2008
The McCains' Monied Modesty
We know many millions Hillary and Bill Clinton made (109 in eight years), but the family finances of John and Cindy McCain are none of our business, thank you very much.
In releasing the Senator's tax returns today, his campaign tells us: "Since the beginning of their marriage, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain have always maintained separate finances. As required by federal law and Senate rules, Mrs. McCain has released significant and extensive financial information through Senate and Presidential disclosure forms. In the interest of protecting the privacy of her children, Mrs. McCain will not be releasing her personal tax returns."
So we are allowed to know that, for 2007, Senator McCain paid $84,460 in federal income taxes on taxable income of $258,800.
It's comforting to know that the McCain children's privacy is being protected. Chelsea Clinton is a grownup, and the Obama children don't stand to inherit all that much, unless their father loses this year and writes more best-sellers and goes on a lecture tour, so their financial privacy is not of such urgent concern.
In releasing the Senator's tax returns today, his campaign tells us: "Since the beginning of their marriage, Senator McCain and Mrs. McCain have always maintained separate finances. As required by federal law and Senate rules, Mrs. McCain has released significant and extensive financial information through Senate and Presidential disclosure forms. In the interest of protecting the privacy of her children, Mrs. McCain will not be releasing her personal tax returns."
So we are allowed to know that, for 2007, Senator McCain paid $84,460 in federal income taxes on taxable income of $258,800.
It's comforting to know that the McCain children's privacy is being protected. Chelsea Clinton is a grownup, and the Obama children don't stand to inherit all that much, unless their father loses this year and writes more best-sellers and goes on a lecture tour, so their financial privacy is not of such urgent concern.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Family Counseling for the McCains
Irony is now officially dead as Karl Rove advises John McCain in today's Wall Street Journal to "share a personal narrative about his life, values and inner beliefs" with voters.
Eight years ago, Rove and his crew concocted their own for McCain and shared it widely in South Carolina before the 2000 primaries that helped seal the nomination for George W. Bush--a man emotionally damaged by his years as a POW with a wife addicted to pain killers, the father of an illegitimate, interracial child.
As recently as last June, Mrs. McCain told a reporter that her family was still dealing with the "emotional fallout," that Bridget, their adopted daughter who was born in Bangladesh and was then 15, learned about the accusations while Googling her own name and went to her mother in tears.
“She wanted to know why President Bush hated her,” Mrs. McCain said. “And I had to explain to her that it wasn’t the president that hated her, that no one hates her...I had to explain to her how nasty campaigns can be.”
Now Bush is embracing McCain in the Rose Garden, and Rove is telling him how to swiftboat Obama and Clinton. "Nasty" seems like a pale word.
Eight years ago, Rove and his crew concocted their own for McCain and shared it widely in South Carolina before the 2000 primaries that helped seal the nomination for George W. Bush--a man emotionally damaged by his years as a POW with a wife addicted to pain killers, the father of an illegitimate, interracial child.
As recently as last June, Mrs. McCain told a reporter that her family was still dealing with the "emotional fallout," that Bridget, their adopted daughter who was born in Bangladesh and was then 15, learned about the accusations while Googling her own name and went to her mother in tears.
“She wanted to know why President Bush hated her,” Mrs. McCain said. “And I had to explain to her that it wasn’t the president that hated her, that no one hates her...I had to explain to her how nasty campaigns can be.”
Now Bush is embracing McCain in the Rose Garden, and Rove is telling him how to swiftboat Obama and Clinton. "Nasty" seems like a pale word.
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