09/22/2008
13 Cars: John McCain's Automotive Fleet Under Spotlight
John and Cindy McCain's fleet of vehicles is under scrutiny, particularly in the car-manufacturing swing state of Michigan. Newsweek reports that the McCain family owns more than a dozen cars while the Obamas own one:
"When you have seven homes, that's a lot of garages to fill. After the fuss over the number of residences owned by the two presidential nominees, Newsweek looked into the candidates' cars. And based on public vehicle-registration records, here's the score. John and Cindy McCain: 13. Barack and Michelle Obama: one."
Newsweek also notes that most of the cars are registered under Cindy's name. Huffington Post has a slide show.
Obama's car is a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, a replacement for a Chrysler 300C. Consider the outrage from the right if it was Obama that was the automotive glutton in this situation.
McCain was interviewed by a Michigan news station in September and attempted to explain why he doesn't buy American. He also said that his daughter Meghan bought her Prius herself, although last year he said that he had bought it for her. McCain lies, "I've bought American literally all my life and I'm proud." At least three of the McCain's vehicles are foreign-made.
Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...
Previously
John McCain Doesn't Know How Many Houses He Owns [tr]
Posted 8:22 AM EST by Andy Towle in Automobiles, Election 2008, John McCain, News | Permalink
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*roll eyes* Another meaningless "debate" over a superficial issue. We actually have - ya know - real issues to discuss. Economy, marriage, security, etc ... and you spend your time on how many cars some dude owns...
Posted by: yoshi | Sep 22, 2008 8:40:41 AM
I know that american and european taste differs greatly where cars are concerned - BUT MY GOD THOSE CARS ARE UGLY...
Posted by: arch | Sep 22, 2008 8:42:50 AM
it's scary to think of that senile short-fuse behind the wheel bombing down the highway... with that back-seater Mars-Attacks wife in the passenger seat.
Posted by: A.J. | Sep 22, 2008 8:48:40 AM
while it may be superficial to discuss how many cars/homes McCain has...it is relevant to the fact that they (GOP) trys to make seem OBAMA is the "Elitist"?? OBAMA 1-house, 1-car...hmmmm
Posted by: Disgusted American | Sep 22, 2008 8:59:05 AM
Yoshi, I'm sorry I have to say something. You are the most politically dense person on this blog (and that includes bisexual double-standard Jason!).
The reason this is news is because the McCain campaign has attacked Obama for being elitist. This is all a response to that attack. How can McCain call Obama an elitist for "eating arugula" while he owns seven houses and thirteen cars? That's the whole point!
Posted by: Sami | Sep 22, 2008 9:02:04 AM
YOSHI the troll gets so upset each time Towleroad posts one of McCain's lies. You'd think he'd be used to it by now.
Posted by: John in Manhattan | Sep 22, 2008 9:04:52 AM
Sweet. I own several non-financed cars. I now consider myself an elitist. Take that you A-list gays.*
*Please note sarcasm.
Posted by: Matt | Sep 22, 2008 9:29:03 AM
Well, I suppose they need to have a car or two at each of their many homes. Not that they drive them... I'm sure they are chauffeured everywhere.
Posted by: BusyTimmy | Sep 22, 2008 9:51:03 AM
Elitism is like cholesterol. There's the bad elitism: intellect, community organizing, uppity blacks. And there's the good elitism: enormous wealth, more cars than you can possibly drive, trophy wives. Gotta keep 'em straight!
Posted by: Ernie | Sep 22, 2008 10:10:03 AM
The irony is that every gay man who bought a beer west of the Mississippi within the last 50 years contributed to the Cindy McCain fortune which enabled them to buy all these cars.
Posted by: HOGB | Sep 22, 2008 10:23:20 AM
Best part is the 13 doesn't even include Cindy's regular car that she drives (a Lexus) which is listed as registered to her company.
Posted by: what | Sep 22, 2008 10:33:44 AM
So did Obama pay for his own car, or did he just buy the seats while Tony Rezko paid for the rest?
Posted by: Carl | Sep 22, 2008 10:39:16 AM
My $2 Bud at The Cuff in Seattle in 2001 bought Cindy McCain a car? I knew there was a reason for the mark-up!
Is Sarah Palin's 15 minutes up, yet? Please say 'yes'.
Posted by: michael | Sep 22, 2008 10:39:17 AM
*roll eyes* Another meaningless "debate" over a superficial issue. We actually have - ya know - real issues to discuss. Economy, marriage, security, etc ... and you spend your time on how many cars some dude owns...
POSTED BY: YOSHI
----------------------
This coming from the GOP trolls who say nothing of the meaningless Obana elitist celebrity ads. Fuck you.
And Carl, God just left word he is working on finding you a brain, right after he finds McShame his soul.
Posted by: patrick nyc | Sep 22, 2008 11:26:16 AM
Are there truly any 'American' cars being made nowadays?
Many of the vehicles manufactured in the USA are designated as “foreign” while many vehicles manufactured in Mexico or Canada are designated as “domestic” (American). That’s due to federal regulations that require a “domestic” vehicle to be made of at least 75% domestic parts. So, US manufacturers send parts to Mexico or Canada where the cars are built, but are legally sold as “domestic”. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Hyundai manufacture cars in the USA, with American workers, in American plants, with American research facilities, that are “foreign” because they contain less than 75% domestic parts. The picture gets even murkier if we take a closer look at the major manufacturers. They are multi-national corporations with operations and manufacturing arms and partners world-wide. General Motors owns or has a percentage stake in Saab, Opel, Holden, Fuji Heavy Industries (Daewoo), Suzuki Motors, and Isuzu Motors. In 1998 Daimler-Benz A.G. of Germany, took control of Chrysler to become DaimlerChrysler A.G. Ford owns Volvo, Land Rover, Aston Martin and Jaguar, and has a significant stake in Mazda.
Still, having more than a dozen cars whether 'domestic' or 'foreign' is simply obscene.
Posted by: Bading | Sep 22, 2008 12:34:26 PM
Carl,
You're so funny, like dog sh@t! You step in it and the stench just doesn't go away...
Seriously, you gay Rethugs are just pathetic. Why do you bother coming to a liberal site and expect liberals to agree with anything you say? Moreover, don't you get it, we think you gay Rethugs are parasites. You support candidates that strongly support enemies of gays: John McCain is against ENDA and any form of state recognized gay domestic partnerships. The GOP is the home of Dobson and other anti-gay scum. And, there's the whole history of racism.
So, the whole issue of cars is about more GOP hypocrisy. McCain was deeply enmeshed in the S&L collapse under Bush I. He has been on the Commerce Committee of the Senate that oversaw the current disaster.
Now, McCain has published the lie that Obama received advice from Franklin Raines. A lie. But lying is what McCain and the GOP do so well...
Posted by: noah | Sep 22, 2008 1:19:15 PM
Yes, NOAH, and the Franklin Raines ad brings back memories of the infamous Willie HOrton ad used by Papa Bush. Just the images of Barack and Raines(who've met just once) has a not so subliminal message. If Barack and Raines only met once-- WHY would you create an ad showing them together on the TV screen?
But I'm going to believe that most White American voters are beyond that kind of shit...I hope...I know....well, I hope.
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Sep 22, 2008 1:31:12 PM
13 cars. Viva Capitalism! its the fuckin American way. Buy, buy, buy. Why do you whiners think you got your $600.00 economic stimulus checks? And poor little Obama only has one car. What the fuck are you thinking? You know Michelle isn't taking the bus. Maybe one of them walks? Michelle drops Barry off at the capital, the girls at school and then drives to her $300,000 a year job (which they are holding for her while she campaigns for her husband)? get real.
Posted by: dc8stretch | Sep 22, 2008 1:42:08 PM
"Why do you whiners think you got your $600.00 economic stimulus checks?"
Has anyone else noticed that people who accuse us of whining (when, in reality, we're simply commenting) are the actual whiners?
As for "Viva Capitalism! its the fuckin American way": as we learned last week, sometimes American-style capitalism doesn't work out so fuckin well.
Posted by: Ernie | Sep 22, 2008 5:35:29 PM
You can't violate the laws of economics any more than the laws of physics. Overpriced assets will eventually have to be sold at a loss, in this case, they are trying to get the taxpayers to pick up the tab. Why there wasn't a properly working futures market for mortgages to force the asset values down will take a while to figure it out, but regulation was hardly the problem unless you mean the requirements to sell very risky mortgages to poor people. The only lack of oversight seems to be that these reserve mortgages were not actually sold to poor people in many cases but to speculators who left the banks holding the bag when the market cratered. Are we going to bail out the speculators now? If they applied for a reserve mortgage under false pretenses they need to be prosecuted. So Ernie is correct, "American-style" capitalism did not work in the mortgage market because it became a vehicle for fraud, and now our "American-style" political system is not going to work because it's going to increase the fraud.
Posted by: anon | Sep 22, 2008 11:55:16 PM
NOBODY caught McCain saying,
" she has a Prius BECAUSE IT *REDUCES* gas MILEAGE..."
????????
What an idiot. How can a car "REDUCE MILEAGE". Fugging nitwit. Possible leader of The US of A and can't even utter a sense-making sentence.
Posted by: pickles | Sep 23, 2008 12:39:33 AM