When I chanced across the news that John McCain doesn’t know how many houses he and his wife own, my first thought was that the Senator’s thoughts aren’t focused on his material possessions, which struck me as admirable. Why should a lawmaker and Presidential candidate be au courant about such things, particularly when his schedule for the last couple of years has allowed very little time at home? Better for him to have sound opinions on foreign policy, taxes, energy, etc. and leave his balance sheet to his accountant.
Barack Obama, however, regards indifference to one’s wealth as a vice rather than a virtue. It shows that his opponent is “out of touch”. Next up, I suppose, will be a denunciation of the McCains’ “spendthrift” donations to charity. (A piece in left-wing Harper’s Magazine has already claimed that the recipients of their roughly $200,000 a year in gifts are not “the pattern of giving you’d expect from someone who has cultivated an anti-elitist image”.) After that, Obama surrogates will witheringly point out that the average Joe didn’t have Mr. McCain’s opportunities for foreign travel in the late 1960’s.
This election may be amusing after all.
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