Some Things That Are True

We all know that Obama is an elitist, but did we also know that he isn't elitist? Here is some factual information:

According to the Associated Press, Obama and his wife made $4.2 million last year, paid $1.4 million in taxes and donated $240,370 to charity. Most of the money came from two books that he wrote. As recently as one year before that they made $991,296, total, mostly from working jobs as a senator and a University of Chicago Medical Center administrator.

The Clintons made $20.4 million last year, over half of which came from Bill talking to people in exchange for sweaty fistfuls of cash. I don't know what they made last year but they've pulled in $109 million since her time in the White House ended.

McCain won't tell anybody what he is worth but he is married to a beer heiress named Cindy who is supposedly worth about $100 million. Most of his money comes from being married to a beer heiress worth $100 million. Mostly her company distributes for Budweiser, so it's not even good (or the cheapest) beer.

So, in sum, Obama is worth probably less than %10 as much as either other candidate, and his money comes from things he wrote himself, plus working as a senator, plus his wife helping sick people. The Clintons have money mostly from yammering to people who can afford his $150,000 or so fee. McCain has money because he divorced his first wife, married someone 18 years younger (back in 1980 when he was about the same age as Obama is now), and used her money to become a senator.

Obviously Obama is rich, but he is the least rich of the three candidates, has been rich the least time, and became rich in the least elitist fashion. Granted, he is bad at bowling, but the Clintons have something like more than ten times his money earned by spending lots of time talking to very rich people. And McCain is married to a beer heiress.