Thursday, August 21, 2008

Shocker: A rich senator!

Politico has great sport with the fact that John McCain can't quite say how many homes he and his wife own:
The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.
In recent weeks, Democrats have stepped up their effort to caricature McCain as living an outlandishly rich lifestyle — a bit of payback to the GOP for portraying Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as an elitist, and for turning the spotlight in 2004 on the five homes owned by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Pro-Obama labor groups have sent out mailers highlighting McCain’s wealth, and prominent Democrats have included references to it in comments to reporters.
It won't work, guys. Give it up. The reason it worked with Kerry (and with Al Gore) is because they were liberal Democrats engaged in the usual class-warfare populist game of demonizing the rich. Highlighting the wealth of liberals exposes their hypocrisy, kind of like when "family values" conservatives are caught in sex scandals.

Being a Republican means being in favor of everybody getting rich. It is therefore impossible to accuse a Republican of hypocrisy for the sin of being rich.

UPDATE: Via AOSHQ, if St. Hopey wants to fight over this, Team Maverick's ready to rumble:
Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?
Attention Team Obama: Welcome to the big leagues.

1 comment:

  1. Actually, I think this will work. It reminds the public of the fact that McCain never has understood what it means to go without. His entire life has been provided to him, including when he graduated at the bottom of his class only to be rewarded like he had graduated at the top, due to his family name. It's why he would employ Phil Gramm to be his top economic advisor, and still frequently consults with him after his horrid "nation of whiners" statement. It sheds light on the hypocrisy of an individual who will call Obama an elitist simply because Obama's more intelligent than he is, and used his intelligence to rise through the ranks of society, as opposed to the fortunes of his beer heiress wife. It will be just as effective as the celebrity ads were.

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