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5
-Buy the average American home, which costs $266,00.
- Fund the $5,000 tax credit John McCain proposes giving to working families to help with the annual cost of health care. You could cover 60 families.
- Buy 30,000 anti-malarial bed nets, including distribution to Africa and education on use for recipients.
- Pay the tuition of 59 Arizona State University students.
- Fly a Learjet 60XR for two and a half days at the price of $4,800 an hour (it’s the only way to get around Arizona, you know).
- Provide 6,000 students with school desks taken away by a schoolteacher that Mike Huckabee knows.
- Give tire gauges to 75,949 Americans hit hard by the price of gas, so they can get better mileage in their cars. Or so you can mock Barack Obama.
- Send nine community organizers and one part-timer into the streets to work for a better America (hahahaha!).
And just to be clear about why Mother Jones believes this speculation isn’t off bounds:
Why is Cindy McCain’s $300,000 outfit [worn at the RNC convention] relevant? Because just one day later the GOP spent the evening slamming Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist (using, ironically, former CEOs Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina, and Mitt Romney to make the case).
…
Look, there’s nothing wrong with being rich. But there is something wrong with the party that has been in bed with the super-rich and with Big Business for decades, and has consistently pushed policies that benefit those interests, claiming to know the pulse of the working man. The price of Cindy McCain’s dress isn’t relevant because of Cindy McCain, the woman can wear what she wants. It’s relevant because of what it illustrates about the Republican Party.
Privilege is privilege – I’m privileged just by virtue of my skin being white (although there’s controversy over whether Jews should consider themselves caucasian). But I’m not expected to feel guilty about that, rather, I’m expected to use my position of privilege on behalf of those who are not.
When a spouse wears $300,000 worth of items at one time, while the other spouse seeks the office of the President by making statements about how the opponent is elitist, as far as trying to make an argument? This is shooting yourself – or spouse – in the foot. To say the very least.
For those who might be wondering, where does she come from to say this? Here’s the blog post that launched a watershed for me about the concept of privilege, what it means to be privileged and what you can do if you are privileged – vis a vis those who are not. It’s written by an amazing writer and activist named Adele Nieves whom I met last March, roomed with and spoke on a panel with at BlogHer on race and gender and consider one of the most important people for me to have ever met in my life:
I understand the importance for people to feel safe and comfortable in order to participate. Yet, I’ve rarely been afforded the same privilege. I’d love to ask media outlets, organizations, elected officials and corporations to develop new approaches to include me as a leader, and create new languages and systems that are not hostile to my community and environment. But I don’t have that privilege or that power, and anyway I’m not going to beg anyone to include me. Instead, I’m working on building our own institutions. Some people do have that privilege and power, however. Jill, I encourage you to examine what kind of power you have, and challenge you to use that power to start the conversation, to propose a new dialogue; to create a diverse panel, group, or media alternative and invite me (and others) to lead it with you. Make WOC/POC, transgender, queer, disabled, immigrant, fat, and gay communities the basis of your programming. Do the research, listen, and learn!
Nothing the Republican ticket offers – certainly not its platform nor any “let’s dump partisan politics” rhetoric has any intention of going anywhere near the goals conveyed in the paragraph above.
And certainly not while the wife of the GOP candidate for President wears $300,000 outfits. $3,000 is one thing. $30,000 – at inauguration, maybe. $300,000 ever? No. Not buying it, pun intended.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 11:34 am September 5th, 2008 in Cindy McCain, Government, John McCain, Politics, Social Issues, Vice President, WH2008
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To be fair, without jewelry the bill is $3600. I don’t know why I would want to be fair, though. I spent 1/12 of that on my damn wedding dress.
Such a spoilsport, you!
Yes – you are right, one pluck of the ears and there you go.
It’s the scale – I cannot contemplate the scale of it all.
I wouldn’t mind so much if ANYthing she wore were attractive. Hideous colors, hideous hair–hideous in a different way every night.
SPEAK IT!
I walk with you,
Adele
And you do speak it.
Thank you.
If you really have time to take out of your day to write about Mrs.McCain’s outfit and how much it was and bitching about the fact that it was alot of money to use that against McCain.. Wow!!!!!! You all need to GET A LIFE, then secondly how does his wife come into play on his actions as president? I am sorry that you cant afford that and jealous of the money they have and think you deserve “so much” theres a true democrat for you huh? You guys are a complete joke.
AND BY THE WAY THIS …..
Buy the average American home, which costs $266,00.
- Fund the $5,000 tax credit John McCain proposes giving to working families to help with the annual cost of health care. You could cover 60 families.
- Buy 30,000 anti-malarial bed nets, including distribution to Africa and education on use for recipients.
- Pay the tuition of 59 Arizona State University students.
- Fly a Learjet 60XR for two and a half days at the price of $4,800 an hour (it’s the only way to get around Arizona, you know).
- Provide 6,000 students with school desks taken away by a schoolteacher that Mike Huckabee knows.
- Give tire gauges to 75,949 Americans hit hard by the price of gas, so they can get better mileage in their cars. Or so you can mock Barack Obama.
- Send nine community organizers and one part-timer into the streets to work for a better America (hahahaha!).
CAN ALL BE DONE BY MULTIPLE PEOPLE, NOT JUST MCCAIN [edited out obscenity]