CLINTONS, McCAINS AND OBAMAS, O MY !!!

Part I

I’ve found many aspects of this year’s election to be fascinating, in particular the ongoing “discussions” between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. But there are several issues with regard to Senator John McCain that have been kept rather low-key thus far. They are issues that I believe need to be exposed to the light of day, rather than pushed to the back burner in favor of the more “scintillat­ing” Clinton/Obama controversies. I hope to explore these issues in my next few blog posts.

First up: Cindy McCain’s Wealth

I wonder whether most people are aware that John McCain’s wife Cindy is worth well in excess of $100 million dollars. She is an heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune, and although most everything is in her name, there is no question that her husband shares in the lavish lifestyle that her wealth affords her, his lack of taxicab fare notwithstanding.

Make no mistake: I do not begrudge Sen. and Mrs. McCain their wealth. If they can live with the fact that their family has benefited immensely from the alcoholism from which millions of people suffer (and in turn, their families), so can I. I am simply astonished that almost no one (including the so-called “family values” crowd) has brought this to the public’s attention.

So why do I find this point to be of such interest? Four years ago, John Kerry was trying desperately to become President so he could attempt to save our country from the ruination that George W. Bush has done his dead-level best to achieve (and to some extent, has succeeded in doing so). However, one of the things that was repeatedly brought to the voters’ attention during that campaign was the wealth of Senator Kerry’s wife, Teresa, who is an heiress to the Heinz fortune. (At this point, it’s worth mentioning that although I have met many a ketchup lover, I have yet to meet – or even hear of – a single person with a bedlam-inducing ketchup addic­tion.)

I never quite understood why such a spotlight was shone on Mrs. Kerry’s wealth, because many politicians and/or their families are wealthy. But it was one of sev­eral silly, yet effective, strategies utilized by George Bush’s camp to distract easily-distracted voters from the issues that truly mattered, such as the thousands of lives lost and the billions of dollars spent on a war that will forever be known as The Pig in a Poke from Hell.

So why aren’t Sen. McCain and his wife under a microscope similar to that of Sen. and Mrs. Kerry? Why the double standard? That’s a question that perhaps would best be left to Hannity and Colmes to argue, but one can’t help but wonder: If John Kerry had been elected President in 2004, would the last four years perhaps have proven to be less damaging to our nation’s economy and less tarnishing to its reputation on the world stage? Would those years – which we will never get back – have occu­pied a brighter spot in our nation’s history than what George W. Bush has wrought?

Unfortunately, we’ll never know…