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Seven houses is nothing, McCain owns 13 cars
A few weeks ago, the press made a big deal about the fact that John McCain had more houses than he could recall off the cuff. Newsweek has taken the next logical step towards providing the all-important TMI by finding out how many cars each candidate owns.
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle make do with just one vehicle; a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid that replaced the senator's un-PC but much cooler HEMI-powered Chrysler 300. McCain takes a more, ahem, liberal approach to vehicle ownership, with 13 cars and trucks to fill his seven garages. If we were wealthy and influential, we too would own a lot of cars. That would give us a tangible link to the Republican nominee, except for the fact that our collection of cars would be a hell of a lot cooler. McCain owns a 2004 Cadillac CTS as his daily driver, and it gets less interesting from there. Rounding out the Maverick's sizable stable is a 2005 VW convertible, a 2001 Honda sedan, a 2007 Ford pickup, a 2008 Wrangler, a 2000 Lincoln, a 2001 GMC SUV, three 2000 NEV Gem electric cars, and a vintage 1960 Willys Jeep. McCain's wife Cindy, who uses drifting as a form of therapy and sits atop a family fortune from her beer distribution company, drives a Lexus with "MS BUD" vanity plates.
Nothing in that crop of rides screams "I'm rich and powerful," but if you have seven houses, it makes sense to have at least one vehicle at each residence. What doesn't make sense is that all of those vehicles are about as exciting as sugar free tapioca pudding.
[Source: NewsWeek, Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
bajabusta 11:33AM (9/23/2008)
OH NO, I drive a 2004 CTS as my daily....sigh.
Reply
Vintage 12:20PM (9/23/2008)
I say let him buy as many cars as he wants. Owning more doesn't mean you're using more gas, and if anything it decreases the number of vehicles available for other people, which raises the value of used cars, which means people will be more likely to maintain/repair them, instead of junking them.
But yes, this is a stupid article.
SteveRB 12:40PM (9/23/2008)
13 cars or 1. It doesn't matter. He's still driving with the turn signal on at 40mph on the freeway.
TJ 1:05PM (9/23/2008)
@ steve: really? a 'hey, mccain is old' schtick is the best you can do?
SteveRB 9:17PM (9/23/2008)
How about McCain was one of the Keating Five. Is that better?
jane 9:26PM (9/23/2008)
Keating Five McCain is a LIAR, HYPOCRITE and a FRAUD.
Honor comes with HONESTY - McCain no longer has either.
... he also has a Cessna Citation Excel jet. Gold digging works!
tekdemon 5:54AM (9/24/2008)
Don't feel too bad, at least you know that a lot of very wealthy people (even without his wife, Senator McCain is a pretty wealthy man...there aren't many poor Republican Senators out there) manage to resist the nouveaux riche temptation to go buy the most expensive cars you can afford.
A little sad that he didn't put a decent budget sports car in there, but the guy's over 70 so it's not like it's a good idea for him to be piloting 600 horsepower beasts through the streets.
Truth be told if I had the cash I'd probably buy a lot of cars that fly under the "I'M RICH" radar. Driving something like a Toyota Avalon Limited or a Buick Lucerne is a LOT less likely to attract attention than if you drive around in a Mercedes Benz S600, and while some people might want the attention I'd rather not attract carjackers and kidnappers if I was rich. And if you're just using the cars as commuters it's not like the Avalon would be any less comfy than the Mercedes (and ironically, probably more reliable so you don't have to be stranded somewhere with your $100,000 car).
Tristan 11:37AM (9/23/2008)
Who the F@%k cares how many cars he has. Its the american Dream. maybe people should look into how long he takes in the shower so we can point out he waists water!
Reply
Seminole 11:57AM (9/23/2008)
I for one, would NOT like to see John McCain in the shower.
3seriesisking 12:00PM (9/23/2008)
I second Seminole's comment and motion to carry.
SteveRB 12:37PM (9/23/2008)
After 8 years of Bush and Republicans, the American dream is having health insurance and not being behind in your house payments.
dsharp23 12:57PM (9/23/2008)
is it bush's fault that retards bought houses they couldn't afford? when are people going to take responsibility for their own actions? Bush is a fool, for sure, but it's not really fair to blame him for that.
Dustin 1:24PM (9/23/2008)
I personally don't care, but the point of the "issue" is that he went to Detroit and told them he has only ever bought American cars, and as it turns out he's got some foreign ones as well.
G-Meister 2:52PM (9/23/2008)
Dustin- I would say it is a reasonable assumption that Cindy may have purchased the VW and Honda herself, while the Lexus is a "company car", upholding Johnny-Mc's statement. You try telling an heiress what car she can't buy.
Steve- who knew all I needed was a job and a little responsibility to live the American Dream!?!?
The Luigiian 5:13PM (9/23/2008)
"Is it bush's fault that retards bought houses they couldn't afford? When are people going to take responsibility for their own actions? Bush is a fool, for sure, but it's not really fair to blame him for that."
Is it Bush's fault? Of course. Him, the banks, and Congress allowed those retards to buy houses they couldn't afford. If the federal government had been paying attention to the banking system as it is currently being handled they would have realized long ago that these subprime mortgages would wind up doing serious damage to the economy.
simianspeedster 8:07PM (9/23/2008)
Luigiian,
Read this article very carefully:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06E3D6123BF932A2575AC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print
The Bush Administration proposed additional oversights to make sure Freddie and Fannie were properly capitalized and regulated, but it was killed by Barnie Frank and the Democrats in Congress.
"These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee.
-SimianSpeedster
SteveRB 9:21PM (9/23/2008)
So SimianSpeedster -
What happened to that legislation? According to the history books, in 2003 Bush was President and Republicans controlled Congress.
The Luigiian 11:07PM (9/23/2008)
Hey Simianspeedster, great article, too bad it doesn't mention why the bill was cancelled.
Let's see... It would have removed the President's ability to appoint five of Fannie's 18 directors... Would have added yet another agency to the federal government's already bloated bureaucracy... And let us not forget there was already an oversight committee, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, only that one didn't work? Is that all correct?
As for Barney Frank... He was saying that Fannie wasn't experiencing any financial crisis. He was right... at the time. It's only now that the crisis is falling on our heads. (Although I will admit he was stupid to make the statements he made.)
My analysis on the article you provided isn't perfect--I admit I have a less-than-perfect knowledge of all the dealings of Freddie and Fannie--but I doubt you can do any better. I believe that my points are still correct. The last thing those two needed was another regulatory agency, what they needed was for the first regulatory agency to do its job. And since it's the President's job to enforce the laws, I do believe it was his job to force his agencies to do their jobs.
simianspeedster 10:58AM (9/24/2008)
Come on, SteveRB, do you really think political life is that simple? When the Barney Franks of the world start crying that evil Republicans are going to eliminate fair housing by enacting reasonable controls on a risky venture (dead false, BTW), politicians can't simply ignore that impact and make it happen. A bill of that magnitude takes time to get backing and pass, and by the time the bill gained ground, the Democrats killed it.
Read, my friend, read. The truth is useful: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/11/AR2008091102841.html
-SimianSpeedster
simianspeedster 11:10AM (9/24/2008)
Luigiian:
No, Barney Frank was NOT right about the level of risk at Freddie and Fannie, even in 2003. Heavily leveraging the assets of a quasi-governmental institution is not a good idea just because housing prices are going up.
Basically, Freddie and Fannie were becoming a hedge fund, betting that housing prices would never drop. Others saw the risks and warned of the issue. Freddie and Fannie leveraged $100 billion in equity to nearly $5 trillion in debt. Since nearly $1 trillion of that debt was held/financed by the Chinese, the U.S. government had no real alternative but to step in and make good on the debt or we'd risk losing future financing. Remember, Barney Frank is also the politician who repeatedly held that the debt was not backed by the U.S. governement, that taxpayers would not be on the hook. That was unwise.
The bill didn't pass because the Democrats, led by Barney Frank, were spouting lies about how Republicans were trying to kill access to cheap housing when, in reality, Freddie and Fannie were financing risky, expensive loans for speculators and people living beyond their means. Dodd was saying "all is well," too.
http://bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1120930
-SimianSpeedster