Elitism, Thy Name is Cindy McCain

What would the the pundit class say if....

Michelle Obama breezily remarked:
"In Chicago, the only way to get around is by stretch limo."

Or how about if Michelle spun around town in a car with vanity license plates that read: "Ms. Hope?"

We know what would be the result. The accusations of "elitism" and "snobbery" and being "out of touch" would fill the airwaves day and night. 

Yet, on CNN Monday, Cindy McCain said: "In Arizona, the only way to get around is by small private plane."   She also perkily recalled that she discovered this "fact" was when her husband was first running for Senate and so "I bought one!"  We assume she meant a plane, not her husband.

This week, the media also revealed that Cindy has a car with the license plate "Ms.Bud," a reference to her multi-million inheritance from her father's beer distributorship.  No details on the make and model of that car or at which one of the McCains' SEVEN homes it might be stored.

And speaking of beer, Miss Cindy stands to knock down another million or two from the sale of Anheuser-Busch to Belgium's Inbev.  Of course, that's just pocket change for Mrs. McCain who once racked up $750,000 in one month on her credit cards.

Yes, the mainstream media, in passing, have mentioned Cindy's wealthy heiress status, but where is the accompanying feigned outrage we have seen in the coverage of the Obamas?   Does any one of the talking heads see a double standard here?  Barack Obama goes to a diner and refuses a cup of coffee and orders orange juice instead.  Chris Matthews hammers him for not being trustworthy as "a regular guy" for days.  But Cindy McCain jokes about buying a fricking plane and spends more in a month than many Americans make in their adult lives and the McCains are portrayed as just "down home" folks? 

Comments

[McCain is a joke]

McCain graduated 5th from the bottom of his class in the navy and lost (accidents/crashes) five planes during his service.

[Laura]

Squid--

NO. My god, no. There are intelligent children among the poor with parents who care about them who grow up and are able to obtain federal funding for college BECAUSE they're poor, and scholarships BECAUSE they're intelligent. I'm one of those people who did that, and there are more of us than you may realize right now. Wealth and class are not by any means the best indicator of intelligence or ability. I've had fascinating conversations in Shakespearian with homeless men and dealt with raging, blind ignorance of the world from the high class. Also, if McCain represents the average black man, I represent the French. Oh, wait--I'm not French, I didn't come from anything remotely resembling a French background, and I've never even been to France. Oops.

As for the matter brought up in the blog post--I think I get what you mean here. Even at the times the "liberal" media doesn't view them with disdain, any slightly unusual action of the Obamas is placed under a microscope and analyzed to death, while the McCains are just sort of brushed aside whenever anything odd or downright horrid comes up about them. That alone is a sign of bias to me.

[jami]

your blog is great -- cuts the crap to get to issues americans from my red hometown actually care about. sadly, they don't read your blog, but they still get rush limbaugh eight hours a day and all the other right-wing am radio creeps the rest of the time.

subscribed.

[Max Pearson]

Thanks, Jami. Janis and I appreciate it. -max

[Uncle B]

If the American people had forsaken the rich elitist and impressive Bush Empire and followed the humble but wise Al Gore and decided to develop the South Western deserts, with the technology of the times, solar/thermal-molten sodium - electricity installations, for the same amount of money as that war cost, today, we would be tapping into the largest, renewable, sustainable, energy source the world has ever known. It would have paid every energy bill in the U.S.A. for maintenance fees only - FOREVER! It would be equal to an oil field that can NEVER run dry! Low cost electric power, and hydrogen gas for all!
After the millions of murders, and billions of dollars, borrowed from our children’s futures and pissed away, with thousands of our own and others maimed and disfigured for life, millions of families utterly destroyed, ours and theirs, we are no closer to Iraqi oil production than the Iraqis are!
The next time you hear a blithering idiot spoiled brat, drunken, drug addicted, sociopath, rich daddie’s Arabic saber dancing boy, stand at a microphone and threaten YOUR safety with someone ELSE’S weapons, remember what you lost America, remember, and weep!

[I still got love for the streets]

@tenio - There's no such thing as a war hero. The only time a phrase like "war hero" would apply is if someone ends a war peacefully -- THEN they're a war hero.

@ all - All I've got to say is, "the times, they are a'changin'". It will no longer be the elderly white gentlemen sitting at the top of the executive that generations of Americans have come to "know" and "love". McCain will not win this election because he is:

a) an arrogant elitist who doesn't know the price of gas and, although his wife is a goldmine, still collects revenue from the government because he feels like he's got some sort of "entitlement" -- the job of the President is a PUBLIC SERVICE. They ought to cut out the salary bit of it entirely, in my opinion.

b) a warmonger and future human rights ignoramus.

c) the same story as every election since 1968

d) a greedy fool who eats petrol and poos tax cuts on the plates of the wealthiest .01% of this country.

Psst -- the correct answer, if this were multiple choice, would be option "e) all of the above".

[Ed LaTourette]

Chris Edelson:

PRINCE McCain???? Are you a complete moron???? He did forever in POW hell in 'Nam, never broke down, and he's led a PRINCELY existence??? Good Christ. Take your head out of your ass, man...

[Hittman]

Change "Arizona" to "Alaska" and the statement makes perfect sense.

Now change it back and look at a map of Arizona. Understand now?

Consider that a small private plane can be purchased for $15-30k. Feel silly yet?

OMG! She has a vanity plate with her dad's company on it. The HORROR! The Elitism!

Grasping at straws as trivial as this makes you look petty and ridiculous.

[Wozzek]

So?

Since when being wealthy in this country is a crime? I could not care less about Cindy McCain but what bothers me is that moronic following of a cult leader, Obama, whose hypocitical, opporunistic politic offer nothing but empty babbling and are masterly manipulating jadded masses of this, once great country.

Now we need some unkonwn giving us "hope" and promissing "change" without ever stating change from WHAT to WHAT. Horror.

[Cody Wilkerson]

While there is a tone of disdain for the McCains, the author is not necessarily attacking them. He's attacking a fictional biased media. If you watch Fox and listen to Rush, as stated earlier, you will hear a decidedly conservative view point. CNN is about half as conservative, but none the less, most of the programs are biased. However, every other news broadcaster and most other American news mediums are decidedly liberal in their viewpoints. It is not that they state "GOP=bad and Democrats=good", its just that they have a decidedly liberal tone, just as this article does.

[Jess]

@tenio- Living through a war makes you a veteran. Not a hero.

[notamoron]

Mccain was NOT a war hero. Mccain fought in the Vietnam conflict, which was never actually declared a war. I'm tired of people going on about how great Mccain is because he fought in a war. Who cares? He can't win a war. If he was any good at them, he would have never got caught. Simple as that.

By the way, I am a veteran who knows and understands history.

[Mark]

I'm trying to understand how these rich elites can rub it in all of our faces and STILL manage to rally the middle class to defend them. Do people honestly think that the rich need to be defended. What has McCain's money done for any of you lately?

[Kate]

I'm totally voting for Obama, but I've given john McCain much consideration. I don't have anything against him, but it does bother me that Obama gets his name trashed so often. Still the main networks that do this are ones like fox news, and everyone knows fox news is a little crazy. However, the only reason they do this is because hes black and hes different. If he was your regular white opponent then the companies would be equally smearing both of the candidates. I don't think people should go around harassing john McCain or not vote for him because his wife's rich and spends a lot of money, but I definitely don't think its fair Obama gets harassed because his last name would be bad if it had an s where the b is, or that he didn't wear a flag pin to a press conference, or that he ordered orange juice because he maybe just doesn't like coffee.

[endercoaster]

This blogger is completely correct in that the media is using a double standard. Perhaps this comes from different expectations, derived from racial stereotypes. Obama is expected to be less elite, thus he is judged for smaller acts of elitism.

Wanna know something? They're both elite. Almost all politicians are elite. And I do not say this in a dismissive manner. Both Democrats and Republicans stand together on many key issues. Do you really think they're going to let anybody on the ballot who is going to make the real change that this country needs? Look at what happened with Dennis Kucinich. One of the few politicians who isn't a pawn of corporations, and he was excluded from debates.

Republicans: I don't even know what to say to you. You're not complacent to the problem, you're actively part of it.

Democrats: Stop going into primaries worrying about distractions like supposed "electability". America hardly has a 50% voter turn out: give us a candidate who's actually going to accomplish something and we'll come out and vote.

[The super-rich are evil]

The super rich usually are the ones exploiting the world, "hard work" they did? they exploited poor people for maximum gain. People like Cindy are not in this class of people... I am talking about the top .001 percent sometimes they cause revolutions that get them killed France,South America,ect.
It is odd that so many conservatives are against welfare for the disabled or anyone but will mysteriously support it if they become disabled.

[Just a passer-by]

The real point that EVERYONE seems to be missing is simply that although McCain presents himself as a down-home good-boy who'd love to have a beer with you, he is in fact in the top income bracket with money to burn. The fact is that all politicians are less-than-honest and it's stupid to try to prove that one is. I will vote for Obama because I don't care about having a beer with my president, I want a president who shares my opinions about what is important to the country, and regardless of John McCain's economic status, our opinions are at odds. The end.

[olive p. niss]

Politicians and there families usually have a lot of money. Sadly, a somewhat puerile delineation of why this is the case is as follows: money > better education > more opportunities > better job > more money > relationships with the powerful (wealthy) > political potential + ability to pay millions for campaign > political office. Certainly there are exceptions to the american "wealth = success, poverty = failure" equation and holes in this simplistic logic, but for the most part family, or at least personal, affluence is a prerequisite for holding public office on the national level. So get over it, presidents are rich, if not super rich, and thus unable to connect, empathetically, on a dollars and cents level, with the average american, much less the impoverished. Now, if it is your belief that those born in to poverty deserve to stay there, that only those born in to economic security should reap the benefits of our society, vote for McCain. If you believe otherwise, you elitist bastard you, vote for the first legitimate, exciting, liberal candidate in recent history.

[olive p. niss]

Politicians and there families usually have a lot of money. Sadly, a somewhat puerile delineation of why this is the case is as follows: money > better education > more opportunities > better job > more money > relationships with the powerful (wealthy) > political potential + ability to pay millions for campaign > political office. Certainly there are exceptions to the american "wealth = success, poverty = failure" equation and holes in this simplistic logic, but for the most part family, or at least personal, affluence is a prerequisite for holding public office on the national level. So get over it, presidents are rich, if not super rich, and thus unable to connect, empathetically, on a dollars and cents level, with the average american, much less the impoverished. Now, if it is your belief that those born in to poverty deserve to stay there, that only those born in to economic security should reap the benefits of our society, vote for McCain. If you believe otherwise, you elitist bastard you, vote for the first legitimate, exciting, liberal candidate in recent history.

[Estelle]

I hate this stuff. No I'm not voting for McCain, but it's because I don't agree with his policies, not because his wife has a private plane. He's rich, Cindy's rich, who cares? The real point is whether he can run the country well.

[ELT]

Did someone actually say "...humble and wise Al Gore"??? OMG. I just burst my spleen laughing...

[elt]

Hopefully, this poster is still here. Justapasser, what do you mean (exactly) by this post:

"I want a president who shares my opinions about what is important to the country"

Can you be specific? I have lots of friends that intend to vote for Obama, and they sound just like you, but I get no specifics, other than "Bush sucks". Do you have any actual positions that Obama expounds upon that you agree with? By the way, "change" in and of itself doesn't count.

[Anon]

Is this anything like the wonderful Al Gore taking a streched limo two blocks to his Environmental Awareness speach?

[Phil E. Drifter]

John McCain deserves no respect, nor does his 2nd wife. He graduated from his academy 2nd to last and wrecked 3 war planes, 2 of which while not in battle, if my memory serves me. He's trying to capitalize on his bloodline: his father and grandfather were both military men, and he had his hand held all through military school because he was the son of an admiral.

[matt]

Wow, indeed. Some really short sighted comments here, which tends to reinforce the idea of the stupid right winger, and as a one testing the waters of the right wing, for good reasons, I find that disappointing.

He is not attacking anyone for being rich, he is making a point about right wing contradictions. If you can't understand that you are dimwitted, sorry.