Elitist: Yes, or No!

Okay, kids, it’s time for that wacky new game: Elitist: Yes or No? (Cue cheesy game show music)

First, we have Cindy McCain, heiress to a beer fortune, telling CNN that the only way to get around the state of Arizona is by private plane! Elitist: yes, or no?

Answer: No! Of course not!

Next, we have Michelle Obama, and her famous “proud of her country” speech. Here’s what she actually said:

let me tell you something ... for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.

Is this elitist! If you answered yes you are correctimundo!

Next: conservative columnist George Will, calling Americans the “crybabies of the western world.”

Elitist? Yes, or no!

If you said no, give yourself 10 points!

Barack Obama said working class voters are bitter about the economy. Elitist, yes or no?

The answer: Yes!

The McCains don’t pay property taxes for four years on one of their seven homes. Elitist? This is tougher: a lot of people nowadays are having trouble paying their taxes. But seven homes?

(tick tock tick tock tick tock)

Answer? No! It’s not elitist!

And now the final round. It gets trickier! Cindy McCain is a wealthy heiress worth millions. She wears designer suits, owns seven homes, and a private plane. She also racks up astronomical credit card bills, $500,000 in a single month on one card, $250,000 on another. Elitist? Out of touch? Never!

Teresa Heinz Kerry is also a wealthy heiress worth millions who wears designer suits, owns a private plane, and owns five homes. But she would have mandated federally-funded Botox clinics.

Which is the elitist? Can you tell?

Sadly, this isn’t a game. This is serious business. We’re choosing the president of the United States here. There’s a lot at stake. And I can’t believe our national media has steered the national conversation in such a moronic direction.

Deadbeat McCains Default On Calif. Tax Bill

They haven’t paid taxes in four years on their California condo--must be nice. Wish I had that deal. I wonder how long the city of Nashville would let me stay in my house if I didn’t pay the property taxes on it?

Huffington Post has the goods:

Newsweek is set to publish a highly embarrassing report on Sen. John McCain, revealing that the McCains have failed to pay taxes on their beach-front condo in La Jolla, California, for the last four years and are currently in default, The Huffington Post has learned.

Under California law, once a residential property is in default for five years, it can be sold at a tax sale to recover the unpaid taxes for the taxpayers.

The McCains own at least seven homes through a variety of trusts and corporations controlled by Cindy McCain.

Meanwhile, let's not forget McCain's tax-free disability pension. Taxes, schmaxes! They’re for the little people!

And this is the guy we’re supposed to trust with our economic policy? This is the guy who’s going to enforce fiscal discipline and end pork barrel spending? He can’t even keep his own financial house in order!

Hilarious.

Cue the phony outrage over how Newsweek got tipped off to this story in 5 ... 4... 3...

John McCain said WHAT?

Hilarious video. Probably not safe for work, unless you have the earbuds in, or turn the volume way down.



(By the way, if you're wondering if it's true ... sadly, yes.)

How The Cookie Crumbles

Far be it from me to come to Cindy McCain’s defense but this crap about her stealing cookie recipes is starting to piss me off. Yeah, sure, it was funny the first time, but now it’s getting annoying. As if Cindy McCain--or any woman worth her salt--should have at her fingertips an amazing, unique cookie recipe or she’ll be banished from the halls of American womanhood! What is this, an episode of “Leave It To Beaver” or something?

Feh.

Hey, Family Circle magazine: can we dispense with your stupid presidential bake-off and all of the stereotypes about women that it implies? Yes, I know Bill Clinton was included in the recipe contest this year--which just shows how lame the whole premise is to begin with. Does anyone really believe that Bill Clinton sits around the house in Chappaqua baking oatmeal cookies? I think not.

I don’t care if you’re Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain or Jane Doe, American women today lead busy, complicated lives, and cookie-baking isn’t exactly high on the priority list. How many of us get recipes from the back of the chocolate chip package? Hello!

We live in a cut-and-slice world. So next time Family Circle asks a professional woman to share her favorite cookie recipe, my vote will go to the one who uses the pre-packaged dough found in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

Does This Mean It’s Open Season On Cindy McCain?

The Tennessee Republican Party is attacking Michelle Obama? Really? Yes, it’s true:

(CNN) -- In a preview of the political onslaught Michelle Obama may face in the fall, the Tennessee Republican Party unveiled a Web video Thursday highlighting her comment that she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult life."

The four-minute video coincides with a visit to the state by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's wife for a Democratic Party event Thursday evening.

That’s really classy, and so typical of GOP tactics. Taking a trivial comment, blowing it out of proportion, and making sure the press eats it up (which, as evidenced by my CNN link here, they have).

This is so cool because I’m guessing this means it’s open season on candidates’ spouses, and Cindy McCain provides us with all sorts of rich material. There is of course her abject refusal to release her tax returns, even though the conservative pundits went after Teresa Heinz Kerry for the same thing in 2004 (yesterday, Joe Conason reminded us that The Weekly Standard called Teresa a "sugar mommy." Since Cindy McCain is the breadwinner in that family, I’m sure they’ll waste no time throwing similar insults her way in 18-point type. No? Imagine that.)

There’s the private jet she allows her husband to use for campaign travel, a distinct financial advantage over the other candidates. And please note: when a Republican owns a private jet--even one who just gave a speech on climate change--it’s not elitist! Or hypocritical!

But the best dirt on Mrs. McCain is the stuff the press has largely ignored. In fact, it seems Mrs. McCain may have a checkered past with the law. She’s admitted to past drug addiction, but it seems there’s a little more to the story than that. In 1994 The Phoenix New Times covered the story in Opiate For the Mrs. It’s a long, fascinating read. And it shows us what a lapdog press we’ve always had, long before the current crop of stenographers started panting at the feet of the Bush Administration.

Do read the whole thing--while it lasts. It may get yanked off the 'nets as the campaign heats up.

Here’s the short version: In the early ‘90s, Cindy McCain was addicted to prescription painkillers. She stole narcotics from the medical charity she led and used the names of the charity’s employees to get prescriptions--sometimes in quantities as large as 400 or 500 pills. When one of the organization’s directors grew suspicious that prescriptions were being written in his name, she had him fired. When he tried to sue for wrongful termination, the McCains intimidated him with false claims of extortion.

Cindy McCain never served a day in jail (or even rehab, it appears). There are even serious questions about her claims of having been given a pretrial diversion. In fact, the whole thing was just made to go away, thanks to husband John McCain’s good friend John Dowd, the same attorney who helped him escape serious repercussions for his role in the Keating Five scandal. Dowd got Cindy McCain out of hot water and a quickie PR campaign touting a feel-good story about sin and redemption put a nice happy spin on the whole affair. Sweet!

So, let’s get this straight. Michelle Obama made a remark at a speech that quite obviously wasn’t supposed to be taken literally. Still it causes massive pearl-clutching among the flag-wavers and pin-wearers on the right who demand empty displays of patriotism to reaffirm their belief we are the greatest nation evah.

Cindy McCain is a drug addict who supported her habit with narcotics theft. Our nation’s prisons are full of men and women who have done less. Yet because she is rich and powerful she gets off scott-free.

And no one in the media will mention this because the Republicans will say candidates’ spouses are off limits.

IOKIYAR!