McCain: Those Making Only $4 Million Per Year Aren't "Rich"

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by Jonathan Singer, Mon Aug 18, 2008 at 12:10:00 PM EST

Leave it up to John McCain. Just when you thought that he had done enough damage to his own campaign by exposing the extent to which he is out of touch with the American people, he goes out and says something like this:


The rich may be different for John McCain and Barack Obama.

On almost every issue, the two presidential candidates have staked out opposing positions. Their contrasting views on wealth surfaced during their back-to-back appearances in Southern California on Saturday night when each was asked to define "rich."

Obama didn't hesitate. "I would argue that if you are making more than $250,000, then you are in the top 3, 4 percent of this country," he said. "You are doing well."

McCain took a far more discursive approach to answering the question but ultimately settled on a dramatically higher figure: "I think if you're just talking about income, how about $5 million?"

The Arizona Republican quickly added that he was "sure that comment will be distorted," and his campaign said Sunday that he was joking.


It may be that to someone worth $100 million, who owns 10 houses, who flies around in a $12.6 million corporate jet, and who walks around in $520 Italian loafers, $5 million a year in income is the cutoff for the wealthy -- that those making $500,000 a year, or $1 million a year, or even $4 million a year are not "rich" -- but to most American people that's just an absurd statement. Indeed, not only is it absurd to say even jokingly (and it's not clear what the joke would be, or if it really was intended to be a joke, despite what the McCain spinmeisters say) that the cutoff point for being rich is $5 million per year, it's almost unfathomable that anyone could believe that to be the case.

At a time when so many hardworking Americans are struggling to make ends meet in an economy shepherded in the wrong direction by George W. Bush and the Republican Party, voters aren't going to take too well to a candidate this out of touch. It's good, then, to see the Obama campaign continuing to hit McCain on this angle.

http://www.mydd.com/story/2008/8/18/112214/409

his $170,000/yr Senate salary is damn near slave wages.

that's because he himself has probably surpassed that 5 million dollar threshold by now.

Disgusting.

He doesn't have a clue about how the average American survives.

the next day.

The Arizona Republican quickly added that he was "sure that comment will be distorted," and his campaign said Sunday that he was joking.