McCain spent $273,000 on household staff last year alone
Sen. John McCain, the one trying to portray Barack Obama as an out-of-touch "elitist", spent $273,000 dollars on household servants and staff at his many homes and multi-million dollar condos in 2007 alone according to his tax returns.
Politico's analysis of the McCain records found that five of the eight properties were purchased between the summer of 2004 and this February, for a total of $11 million. And the analysis found that the McCains hired additional household help in 2007.
The five new properties are all condominiums, and they include three in Phoenix — one of which became the couple's primary Phoenix residence after a Cindy McCain family trust in 2006 sold for $3.2 million the house in which they raised their children — and a pair outside San Diego.
The new properties joined three previously owned by Cindy McCain, her dependent children and their trusts: a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where John McCain has entertained staff, prospective running mates and political reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Va., condo that's been John McCain's Washington-area residence since 1993; a La Jolla, Calif. condo that is home to Cindy McCain's elderly aunt and on which the trust recently paid nearly $7,000 in back taxes.
The condo that serves as the McCain's primary Phoenix residence was purchased in 2006 for $4.7 million by Cindy McCain's trust. It is a 6,600-square foot unit.
Less than one year after the McCains acquired it, a corporation controlled by Cindy McCain bought another condo on a lower floor in the same building for $830,000.
And, in between, the corporation plunked down $700,000 for a 1,900-square-foot, three-bedroom loft condo for their then-22-year-old daughter, Meghan, who was moving back to Phoenix after graduating from New York's Columbia University. The unit is now listed for sale at $730,000.
Cindy McCain, through another family corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for its high percentage of military retirees.
In an interview with Cindy McCain in the June issue of Vogue magazine, conducted from the newer Coronado condo, she explained that her husband, a Navy veteran, initially wasn't keen on the idea of a pied-à-terre in Coronado.
"When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go,'" she said in Vogue. "Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."
Why not? Got a stain on the carpet? Just buy another $5 million condo. Hell, according to McCain, if you make less than that a year, you're middle-class.
How many homes does he own? McCain, when asked, wasn't sure, saying that he'd have to check with his staff.
Do you know how many homes you own?
Did you make as much last year as the McCain's spent on household help alone?
And Obama is an "elitist" and not in touch with regular people?
Again, breathtaking hypocrisy. Lucky it's the other guy, the guy from a single parent home who made it by brains and hard work, that's the "elitist" in the race.
Any serious observer realizes that the McCain campaign has long since become an absolute joke as far as their wild claims and attacks.
The guy who correctly felt that the Iraq disaster would be ... well, a disaster, is the one with such poor judgement that he's not qualified to be president, while the guy who called for invading Iraq the day after 9-11, and who constantly predicted an easy victory, and who has been nearly psychopathic in his fixation on continuing the conflict into the next millenium, is the guy who has the judgement required.
The guy who got it right.... is wrong, and the guy who repeatedly and consistently got it wrong, and continues to insist we continue making the same mistakes, the guy who's flat wrong.... is right.
See? It all makes sense in a Karl Rove sort of way. Just don't pay attention to that nagging voice of reason in your head.
posted by The Inside Dope @ 8/22/2008
8 comments
8 Comments:
You know McCain's Condo in Crystal City isn't even that big! I bet he hides all his secrets in those huge walk-in closets! Check out the floor plan:
http://dcmetrocentric.com/2008/08/21/mccains-dc-metro-pad/
Is Obama so weak on issues, is he dumping so much in the polls, that THIS is the issue that you think will save him?
Guess what, McCain also spent $1,426 on new sheets for the beds in his houses!!!!!
Yes, McCain owns several homes but at least he gets back "home" to Arizona. Obama only rarely visits his "home" state of Illinois. They are treating him like a hero for coming back to Springfield. Well when's the last time he's been there, really? What does it tell you about Obama's "work ethic" when he has spent so little attention to doing his damn job?
Forget being out of touch with American voters- Obama is out of touch with the people of Illinois. He should have the decency to resign his Senate seat so that Illinoisans can have a second Senator again.
DC Food. I think those cavernous closets are to store his $530 custom made Ferregamo Italian loafers.
Anon 5:59
What happened? Are his Depends leaking?
I find it quite humorous that you'd complain about Dems bringing up issues such as this, when the Republican campaign has consisted of NOTHING BUT things like this and worse.
Nico,
I know you care about that issue, but frankly, no one cares.
And secondly, McCain has been AWOL from his senate duties worse than Obama. At least Obama returned to the Senate to cast votes on several controversial and important issues... McCain didn't even bother to show up OR vote and hasn't been in the Senate for several months.
I think it's called a Presidential Campaign. Not sure.
But I do know that it's rather odd to expect someone running for president to spend a considerable amount of time in their DC offices and touring around their home state.
Frankly, that would be the first time ANY candidate had done so.
To expect Obama to isn't a serious arguement in my humble opinion.
Actually, Dope, what has any of this "house" crap on either side got to do with running the country? Many politicos on both sides of the aisle have extensive real estate holdings. Hell, look at the homes Edwards and Gore own. Total dollar-wise, they may be be right up there with McCain. So what if he said he didn't know how many he owned. Hell, from reading the "report" on his holdings, I found it difficult to figure exactly what he owned, his wife owned, and his wife's trust owned.
Number of homes isn't an arguement in my book for who I might vote for. And neither is the "out of touch" arguement. That's all nothing but campaign fodder. 'Tis the silly season, indeed and the real smearing will just now get started.
I'm looking at things that effect ME. And until I hear better from him, Obama has lost my vote for his wanting to double capital gains taxes. Damn, man, that's some of my retirement income he's messing with.
BH,
It's got a lot to do with telling what sort of life McCain lives and just how truly out of touch he is.
Look at Gore and Edwards homes? Why? They have ONE home, as far as I know, not 7,8, or 9. And they don't buy million dollar properties like most people buy umbrellas, like little Cindy does.
(They own three million dollar plus condos in the same luxury building, and recently knocked down walls to make two of them into one super-huge condo. They probably spend a few weeks there a year, if that.)
And you're missing the biggest point of all. MCCAIN DIDN'T KNOW HOW MANY HOMES HE OWNS, and said he'd have to ask his staff!!
Just how mega-wealthy and out of it do you have to be to actually have to ask your employees to find out how many homes you own???
Don't try to compare that to ANY politician. I mean, even Romney only has a few homes, and at least he KNOWS HOW MANY he owns.
We're supposed to buy the idea that McCAin is such a great leader when he doesn't even handle his own affairs??
In one of his books, he reveals that his mom always handled the finances for his dad the admiral and that he didn't know how many oil leases or anything they owned.
Yep. Just like us.
The wife takes care of the oil leases.
I mean, it's laughable!
You can try all day to equate it with some Dem, but it ain't gonna cut it.
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