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$400 haircuts vs. $520 Italian leather loafers

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I don’t care that John McCain is extremely wealthy. I don’t care that he became wealthy by marrying into a wealthy family. I don’t care about his Armani clothes, his multiple luxurious homes, his wife’s private jet, or his Black Centurion American Express card. His enormous wealth is his business (though it does strike me as more than a little offensive when an obscenely wealthy senator like McCain votes against an increase in the minimum wage, and argues that our economic problems are “psychological,” but that’s just me).

So, when I saw this report in the Huffington Post about McCain’s Italian leather loafers, which cost $520 a pair, my first instinct was to pay it no mind.

This summer John McCain is traveling in style. He has worn a pair of $520 black leather Ferragamo shoes on every recent campaign stop — from a news conference with the Dalai Lama to a supermarket visit in Bethlehem, PA. The Calfskin loafers, with silver-tone “Gancini” buckles, are imported from Italy.

In response to Barack Obama’s foreign tour, McCain spent much of his energy last week emphasizing his focus on domestic issues. What better way to show his American pride than to tour the country in Italian leather?

The piece shows McCain wearing his extremely expensive Ferragamo shoes all the time.

And while I continue to think this is largely just candidate trivia, it is not without a certain political salience.

I was talking to a friend earlier who summarized the underlying theme of the Republican push against Barack Obama in four words: “He’s not like you.” That sounds about right.

And if it is right, I have a message for every American family who can’t imagine spending $520 for a pair of loafers: John McCain isn’t like you, either.

I think Chris Hayes gets this just right.

If I were a right-wing blogger, and I found out that Barack Obama was wearing Ferragamo loafers that cost $520, I would spend about 50% of my waking hours making sure everyone knew this. I would mock him for being an out-of-touch elitist and make jokes like, “If you think that’s a lot, you should see how much his purse costs ” I would send the link to Drudge and wait for Instapundit to pick it up, and then watch gleefully as Fox News ran segments about how Barack Obama’s $500 loafers vitiate his entire economic platform.

But of course, I’m not a right-wing blogger. And the $520 shoes belong to John McCain. And frankly, I don’t think how much his shoes cost matters one whit for how he’d govern the country.

Put it this way — if Barack Obama paid $520 for a pair of Italian loafers, every voter in America would know about it. Every media outlet would report it and every Republican would talk about it.

I’m reminded, of course, of John Edwards’ $400 haircuts. Last year, that story was everywhere, with the Washington Post writing multiple articles about it. “How could Edwards relate to regular folks if he has that kind of lifestyle?” the media asked, over and over again.

Indeed, the media seems to go to great lengths to look for evidence to bolster the far-right meme that Obama is some kind of outsider. From bowling to orange juice to arugula, reporters love to characterize Obama as something less than a “real” American.

Well, McCain has a half-dozen homes and spends on shoes what some families spend on rent. All the while, he advocates more tax cuts for millionaires, opposes increases to the minimum wage, and tells Americans their economic problems are in their heads.

Which candidate is outside the American mainstream?

Comments

  • Steve

    says:

    Well, let’s put it this way—for every penny that John-bo McLie spent on those shoes, there’s more than one kid in America who has no shoes.

    For every penny John-bo McLie spent on those shoes, there’s more than one family would would love to have the money spent on those expensive shoes to buy groceries for their kids.

    And—for every penny John-bo McLie spent on those shoes, there’s more than one unemployed American breadwinner who would love to have a job in an American shoe factory, making an expensive pair of leather shoes with silver buckles for folks like John-bo McLie—so he-or-she could buy shoes and groceries for their children.

  • Crissa

    says:

    We spent $400 at the Doc Martin shop this month… But we got three pairs of leather shoes.

    Of course, they’re shoes that will last near daily use for the next two decades, but… Hey.

  • NonyNony

    says:

    I will just point out that this is the original IOKIYAR idea here. Republicans are supposed to be rich fat cats who don’t care about poor people. So when they’re shown to be rich fat cats who don’t care about poor people, no one is terribly surprised. Least of all the media figures, who know that the Republicans are rich, fat, cats and lacking in empathy for the poor. So it’s kind of a “dog bites man” story in a lot of ways that McCain has an expensive pair of shoes.

    I’m not sure where the idea came around that Democrats couldn’t be rich fat cats who do care about poverty though. I mean, the patron saint of the Democrat pantheon is FDR who was almost the definition of a rich fat cat who cared about poverty. I think there’s some kind of “purity troll” thing that runs through liberalism where if you have money and advocating for the poor you’re expected to donate all your money to charity and go become the next Mother Theresa or something. I seriously don’t know where that attitude comes from. (The answer will probably turn out to be 1968 – when there’s a question about why the Democratic Party/American Liberalism is dysfunctional, the answer seems to inevitably end up being 1968).

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    this of course gets to the fundamental campaign dilemma progressives always face. central to our values is that government should be rational, ideas and people should be judged on their merits, not superficial trivia. voters should be addressed as intelligent adults. it is beneath us, beneath our view of the importance of the office, beneath our belief in the dignity of the process and its participants – particularly the voter – to make the campaign about haircuts or shoes.

    that all sounds great and lofty and noble, except that time and time again the voters show that they are not adults in the voting booth. they don’t watch Jim Lehrer and read The Economist; they watch Fear Factor Season 27 and read whatever e-mail their brother-in-law just sent them about Obama being a terrorist.

    we kid ourselves to think otherwise: a rationale electorate would not have McCain polling within single digits of Obama.

    so we will talk about how “economists say new drilling permissions would not impact gas prices at the pump for at least 7 years,” McCain will say “Obama is responsible for your gas prices because he opposes offshore drilling” – and over 50% of Americans will suddenly favor expanded offshore drilling.

    and we can talk about Obama’s plans for renewable energy and his views on tax policy, but we miss the fact that Americans would rather hear about haircuts and shoes. ask anyone who closely followed the Edwards campaign. ask which got more hits – stories about his poverty tour or about his $400 haircut.

    and we will never, never change this reality about the state of civics in America from the outside, because the media has no need to serve those out of power.

    the only change will come from winning, and winning will not come from being high-minded. it is a suckers bet that people will really vote for “change.” “change” is easy to scare people away from. “change” is easy for Rove to blur or corrupt. we need to get down in the gutter to win this and then once in govern in as high-minded a way as we can – but the alternative is stay out of the gutter and let McCain govern in as low-minded a way as you can imagine.

  • smiley

    says:

    Obama wears a worn-out belt, as pointed out by Malia in that TV interview. That’s more like me.

  • Racer X

    says:

    Here’s the way to go at it:
    John McCain can easily afford $520 Italian loafers because right after he flipflopped on oil drilling the oil companies sent him millions of dollars.

    See how that works? Take one goofball news item (the shoes), add in a currently growing meme (McCain’s a flipflopper), tie the creep to a reviled entity (the oil companies), and make a short, memorable jab to the throat.

    Let the McCain people babble about how he didn’t actually pay for his loafers with the oil money.

  • Mark D

    says:

    You know … part of me really, really, really hopes that stories like these — from both sides — become a thing of the past. Sooner, rather than later, since they don’t tell voters a damn thing about how a person would govern.

    But I’m really, really getting sick and f***ing tired of the media ALWAYS trying to portray Republicans as just regular ‘ol folks, but Democrats as out-of-touch elitists.

    So you know what?

    Screw trying to take the high road … screw not pushing useless issues … screw not playing identity politics. It’s time to stop accepting the GOP’s and media’s bullshit “narratives” as just part of the process, and time to start creating some of our own.

    Dems have lost too many elections by not playing the same game. It’s time we start, and I think this is as good an issue as any.

    Who’s with me?!?!

    **crickets**

    Um … hello?

    🙂

  • Chris Matthews

    says:

    Well, the shoes don’t detract from McCain being a regular guy, does it? George Bush came from wealth, but he was the one people most wanted to have a beer with, am I right?

  • tomj

    says:

    Yeah, McCain’s response to the Italian leather is that Obama isn’t doing his part to stimulate the economy, because he never buys shoes.

  • burro

    says:

    When I think of $520 I-talian leather shoes I think of leather as soft as butter and hands that are the same. For some reason the word pirouette comes to mind though it’s not Italian and the Pope descending from his plane in a very safe and measured way in his $600 bright red Gucci pumps also flashes by.

    They don’t make me think of ranches although McBush would rather that you did: http://www.washingtonindependent.com/view/mccains-cowboy

    How a prima donna like McBush gets the work boot crowd to think he’s one of them is beyond me. Maybe the shoes don’t count against you if you can just keep a war going.

    I stepped up on the platform.
    The man gave me the news.
    He said, “You must be joking son, where did you get those shoes?”

    Steely Dan (and how appropriate when contemplating McBush in his soft leather shoes)

  • clussman

    says:

    Here’s an idea:

    The next time someone like yourself or Alex discovers something like this, create a Hotmail account (or Gmail or whatever floats your boat), swap in Obama’s name for McCain, and then individually email it to every rightwing nutjob website.

    They’re so into verifying rumors that portray a Democrat in a negative light that I’m sure none of them will run with the story, but hey, you never know. Although I’m absolutely positive that even if the rightwing nutjobs pick up on the story that no mainstream media outlet would pass it on to their viewers without verification but, again, maybe I’m crazy.

    And when the truth comes out, well, we can all enjoy it immensely and take even greater pleasure in the “liberal media” being exposed for what it is to the general public — even if only for a moment.

  • William

    says:

    That’s nothing! Mommie Dearest found a three hundred dollar dress on a wire hanger!

    McCain doesn’t get normal America nor does he get abnormal America. He is a trollop for oil and oil money.

  • Callimaco

    says:

    Never mind the price tag, can you imagine what they’d say if Obama were walking around in loafers that looked like those! I’m sure Maureen Dowd would write a column on it …

  • latts

    says:

    I mean, the patron saint of the Democrat pantheon is FDR who was almost the definition of a rich fat cat who cared about poverty.

    Well, FDR was called a ‘class traitor’ until the GOP discovered that doing so made them the ones who looked bad; they then decided to drive the wedge in from another angle by sowing doubts among the poor, which reinforced their version of the benevolent-ruling-classes model nicely.

    I think there’s some kind of “purity troll” thing that runs through liberalism where if you have money and advocating for the poor you’re expected to donate all your money to charity and go become the next Mother Theresa or something.

    While Dems do sometimes seem embarrassed by wealth, the real culprit here is the right as well– by sneering at wealthy liberals and asking why they don’t give their money away instead of taxing The Working Man, they manage to a) at least partly neutralize the progressive-taxation argument, b) align themselves with the poorer classes by openly fearing/loathing anything that even marginally decreases their income, and c) twist the debate to favor their private-charity preferences over public programs.

  • JC

    says:

    Mark D’s call to arms is agonizingly tempting.

    Notice, however, that the one person who should be most tempted is just ignoring it. And if he can still be elected without reducing himself to that undercurrent of shame known as Republican Politics, then we will all be the better for it.

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    burro, if there is a more apropos song, at least in title, for McCain’s campaign than Pretzel Logic, I cannot imagine what it would be!

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    Notice, however, that the one person who should be most tempted is just ignoring it. And if he can still be elected without reducing himself to that undercurrent of shame known as Republican Politics, then we will all be the better for it.

    That assumes his “if” – that he can still be elected – is in fact correct. You could have written the exact same proud post about Kerry during the Swiftboat attacks, and how he seems confident, and how great it will be to elect a noble Democrat.

    that would be still-Senator Kerry. Bush is laughing all the way to his Pardon Pen.

    Too high of a risk to take ever again. Show no mercy. Take them out as early and hard as possible. Make sure we don’t let them back up from that mat. Keep hitting all the way through the bell. This is not the time to act like a bunch of tweed-wearing humanities professors.

  • Rielle Lovechild

    says:

    Ah, come on. He was a POW, for Jah’s sake. Bless his heart. Besides, everybody knows it’s the uppity, uh, I mean, audacious nigras that mostly parade around in the fancy, dandy threads.

  • ROTFLMLiberalAO

    says:

    CB’s lede: “I don’t care that John McCain is extremely wealthy … His enormous wealth is his business.”

    From the Chris Hayes blockquote above: “I don’t think how much his shoes cost matters one whit for how he’d govern the country.”

    I don’t understand the disconnect here. Even Zeitgeist’s post misses the mark: “…central to our values is that government should be rational, ideas and people should be judged on their merits, not superficial trivia.”

    McCain’s wealth (just like his age) matters enormously. It effects his every decision. It is far from trivial. Someone who has not had to worry for 30 years about bills, has no idea what it means to curse the monthly arrival of the cable company bill. Someone who does not curse the cable company bill thinks they are doing “a heck of job.” Someone who thinks they are doing a heck of a job, doesn’t feel compelled as much to question a cable company’s opinion on net neutrality.

    See?
    This is the nail in the shoe that Jack built.
    It is all connected. It always has been. We humans are of a piece. The right hand knows what the left is doing.

    McCain’s wealth is fair game. Just as his age is. It is totally fair to beat him with that shoe until he bleeds. Nothing wrong with that at all.

    Side note to Zeitgeist: What’s with the lack of caps? That’s no way to write. Capitalization makes text more legible. Legibility good. mccain bad.

  • burro

    says:

    zeitgeist – how true. If there were ever a symbol of the infinite flip flop it would be the pretzel. McBush better be careful. You can choke on those things.

  • st john

    says:

    When do the debates start? Why are they not happening now? I thought JMc asked for them. All of this back and forth would quickly end, unless Obama is hiding something that will take him down. The CSM would have to broadcast them and the print media could not re-contextualize either candidates’ statements and get away with it. There would be ample opportunity to You Tube them, and any “editing” would be exposed.

    I, too, question Obama’s failure to go directly after McCain. He doesn’t have to be mean if he just stays with the facts and quotes/documents his challenges. It is very simple to state the truth, without rancor.

    I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
    peace,
    st john

  • Megalomania

    says:

    I still have a ten year old pair of hush puppies made in china for twenty bucks they still are ok.

    The few things from china that works for me.

    Must be nice to be able to blow $520 bucks on shoes.

  • BuzzMon

    says:

    These days people still want to have some beers with Bush, but just as an excuse:

    “Hey, I didn’t mean to beat him up so badly that he’s in the hospital. We were drunk & he started mouthing off some really disrespectful crap & one thing led to another…”

    But seriously, this isn’t about the pricey shoes, it’s (again) about how the Corp Media treats Democrats vs Republicans. We all know that no Corp Media outlet is going to pick this up, much less bounce it around the echo chamber so everybody has heard about it.

  • Capt Kirk

    says:

    “I don’t think how much his shoes cost matters one whit for how he’d govern the country.”

    Well to a guy who would pay $520 for a pair of ugly silver buckle loafers, a war that cost 4500 American lives and tens of thousands of American limbs plus half a trillion dollars and counting is…whatta bargain!

    I say how much he’s willing to pay for shoes is very revealing about how he’d run the country into the ground. Remember this guy wasted a few AF fighter jets in his day (long long ago) and he figures if you crash and burn a country, you just take off and try again.

  • buck

    says:

    Let’s put it this way–the “tax rebate” would only pay for one of McCain’s loafers. So he wants a bigger tax cut for people like him so that they could afford the entire pair!

  • Molly Weasley

    says:

    Here’s something I care about even more than $520 shoes. It’s when Cindy McCain, after doing her NASCAR “lap” in high heels, said she liked speed, so she got a private pilot’s license without telling her husband. “The only way to get around Arizona is with a private plane,” she told the interviewer.

    My relatives in Arizona would disagree.

    Of course, the way was story was played was “isn’t she fun — she likes to go fast.” Nothing about how this rich tart can afford to waste fuel in her private jet. While the rest of us are trying to conserve fuel, she’s flying the most fuel-wasting type of transportation.

    I’m with the readers wondering why Obama (and more Democrats) aren’t hitting back harder.

  • Dr Zaius

    says:

    We should do that anyway. Tell Drudge et. al. that Obama wears $520 shoes and let them go crazy. It’s easy to disprove and easy to throw back at McCain.

  • st john

    says:

    He could buy a second pair and auction them off at a fund raiser and give the money to charity. That would really fly on the ‘tubes.

    I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
    peace,
    st john

  • NonyNony

    says:

    While Dems do sometimes seem embarrassed by wealth, the real culprit here is the right as well– by sneering at wealthy liberals and asking why they don’t give their money away instead of taxing The Working Man, they manage to a) at least partly neutralize the progressive-taxation argument, b) align themselves with the poorer classes by openly fearing/loathing anything that even marginally decreases their income, and c) twist the debate to favor their private-charity preferences over public programs.

    This is true, but the argument presented by folks on the right wouldn’t work nearly as well if liberals didn’t buy into it. And I’m not quite sure why liberals are so willing to buy into the myth of that argument and internalize it as factual, instead of sloughing it off as the nonsense it obviously is.

  • Jeff

    says:

    I wonder how much Obama’s suits cost.

    Guess how much his shoes cost. You make it like Obama is wearing sneakers.

    He wears suits and shoes that cost more than McCain’s.

  • Joey

    says:

    Zetgeist says…”…the only change will come from winning, and winning will not come from being high-minded. it is a suckers bet that people will really vote for “change.” “change” is easy to scare people away from. “change” is easy for Rove to blur or corrupt. we need to get down in the gutter to win this and then once in govern in as high-minded a way as we can – but the alternative is stay out of the gutter and let McCain govern in as low-minded a way as you can imagine….”

    With all due respect, that is not winning. And with the current republican disaster and the results of the Rove style of gutter politics showing what Americans are truly tired of, this is not a change that is easy for Rove types to blur or corrupt. McCain is imploding before our very eyes and you are suggesting we act like his campaign. This election is like no other…any democrat nominated will win in a landslide. This is the one time when the smear campaigns will not succeed. Why??? Because they have been seen for what they are…and their results have proven disastrous.

    People are ‘listening’ for truth, in the last presidential campaign they were only ‘hearing’ it.

    Necessity is demanding involvement because the results of not paying attention have all but destroyed our democracy and the whole world is aware of it as well as the American voter.

    The American voter is even growing tired of Parties, when leaders of both parties stop listening to the people. Obama will not be elected simply because he is a democrat(though that is really all it would take in this election), but he will win in a landslide victory because he represents the kind of change we are all looking for…no more business as usual, no more lobbyist written policies, no more fear mongering, no more secretive government, no more blatant lying, the return of a real department of Justice.

    The press has a unified effort to push McCain off on us but even they can’t sell this guy. By standing up for the principles of truth, honesty and Justice it will feel to McCain supporters like they are being ruthlessly attacked for the very reason that they have lied themselves into the dirt. The desperation of the Republican party and the McCain campaign is well deserved because they are falling into the abyss they have created. If the ignorant voter knows nothing else he knows…these guys are “fucked” and everything has turned to shit, and who needs more of this crap.

    That 27% of loud mouthed right wing zealots only seem threatening because the press refuses to expose them. McCain…Wrong On Everything…And Lying About It (he will follow Rove logic right off that cliff)

  • maya

    says:

    We need Maureen Dowd to come in here and settle this. However, she’s presently preoccupied with Obama’s snow balls handler.

  • libra

    says:

    I don’t care about […] his Black Centurion American Express card. — CB

    Black Centurion???? And you don’t care???? Don’t you know what “centurion” is?

    It’s Greek, for goodness sake. GREEK! The original land of the homoterrorists, and sheep and goat pleasurers. And, as if *that* wasn’t bad enough, this one is half-horse — for those lonely moments, when no stray sheep (or goats of either sex) are available. Sin, upon sin, upon sin *and* foreign at that.

    And BLACK??? I don’t even want to go there…

    And you say you don’t care? Well, I do. And so should every right-thinking ‘murikan. Shame on you, Benen, for picking up on light-in-his-loafers McCain for something as trivial as $520 purchase but totally ignoring the underlying morass of dark and dirty character faults.

  • st john

    says:

    36. On July 30th, 2008 at 5:57 pm, Jeff said:
    Guess how much his shoes cost. You make it like Obama is wearing sneakers.

    He wears suits and shoes that cost more than McCain’s.

    cite, please

  • toowearyforoutrage

    says:

    McCain loses no points because he is showing off his wealth. Republican voters admire him for it and munch on the BS that low taxes will mean THEY wear 520 dollar loafers one day.

    Wouldn’t surprise me if a fair number of Democrats get sucked into the wealth=worth message. There’s hardly any contradiction that isn’t instantly chalked up to envy or “class warfare.”

  • zeitgeist

    says:

    joey, you have no idea how much i wish i could agree with that. but the reality is that McCain is not imploding before our eyes. those of us in here think he is. in any reasonable universe he would be. but there is not a single reputable tracking poll that has Obama leading by more than single digits. CNN’s ticket is showing a new poll showing zero movement in a poll taken entirely after Obama’s highly successful overseas trip, a week that corresponded with McCain having what objectively has to be the worst single week in modern campaigning.

    how we here at CBR see the world may have everything to do with objective reality, but it has little to nothing to do with subjective reality. the reality that counts is what the majority sees, not us. their subjective reality remains that McCain is credible. In that new poll, he still beats Obama on every non-domestic question. sorry, but that is not an implosion. we cannot take the chance that the implosion happens eventually, we cannot expect that it will occur without a push and a shove.

    you say that winning by hitting as hard as they do isn’t really winning. again, i disagree. winning is, well, winning. there is no way to change the definition – winning is an objective fact. if we are too squeamish to get there, we may as well pledge our allegiance to Halliburton and KBR right now, because each time we lose to the right, the impacts multiply – it is not a mere linear progression.

    sorry, i think Obama is taking way too many risks by trying to be above the fray. Again, show me a single candidate in a race of any significant profile since Lee Atwater changed how Republicans run that has won by taking the high road. Cleland? Ford? Gantt? Dukakis? Gore? Kerry? All those folks in Texas who were midterm redistricted into unwinnable seats? Gray Davis?

    Obama is good, but there is no reason to believe he is single-handedly that good.

    it is just a risk we can’t afford. we need to go for McCain’s jugular. the beauty is that we don’t have to lie to do it (in that sense I am certainly not advocating in any way that we be like Rove or Atwater). we just need to be 100 times more aggressive with the truth than we have been so far.

  • McCain Blog Outreach Coordinator

    says:

    Jeff

    We’ve been over this before. You catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar. Time to get with the Program.

    Now try posting on McCain’s positives. Its easy, because John McCain practically sells himself so you don’t have.

    You’ve had your pay docked, once.

  • Carla B.

    says:

    “I was talking to a friend earlier who summarized the underlying theme of the Republican push against Barack Obama in four words: ‘He’s not like you.’”

    Speaking for myself, I don’t want a president who’s like me. I couldn’t ever begin to dream of ways to get us out of the unholy mess that is left after Bush-Cheney. We need a president who’s a hell of a lot smarter than me and certainly smarter than John McCain, whose biggest desire in life is to perpetuate the clusterfuck, not fix it.

  • pixie

    says:

    This is exactly what I’ve been saying–John McCain has no idea how most Americans live and doesn’t care to know. Remember last week how uncomfortable he looked in the grocery store–he was clueless! For this election, we will not be asking What’s The Matter With Kansas. Kansans and others are hurting and guns and gays are not gonna cut it, and neither is an old guy who ditched his wife for a younger, richer model. Let’s get that story out far and wide! One more thing, McCain looks like crap. He looks every bit his 72 years, and very tired and unhealthy. Is this who we want representing our nation around the world? God help us!!!!

  • leo

    says:

    $520? My annual budget for everything including underwear isn’t even $520! When will we stop letting these fancy-pants millionaires run our lives.

  • zoe from pittsburgh

    says:

    It’s all about the double standard–

    if Obama were spied wearing $500 Italian shoes the MSM would be talking about it breathlessly.

    if Obama made a reference to the “Iraq/Pakistan border” the MSM would be talking about it breathlessly.

    if Obama repeatedly confused Sunni and Shia the MSM would be talking about it breathlessly.

    if Michelle Obama had said that the only way to travel was by her own private plane the MSM would be talking about it breathlessly.

    Need I go on?

    That being said, Bush somehow managed to convince people that he’s a “regular fella” and a fake cowboy. This bullshit needs to be called out especially when McCain’s spin seems to be that Obama is a fake, empty out-of-touch person.

  • Patrick

    says:

    You know, Zeitgeist is really right about what he says above. Anything that the republicans will do to us, we need to be doing to them harder. That is the only thing that gets through to thick headed voters that only know what they hear from campaign commercials or scary emails that say Obama doesn’t cover his heart during the national anthem. Thinking that we can be clean, pure, whitehorse riding goodguys is only going to make republicans snicker and sneer at us and call us light in our loafers and efete and say we want to have tea with terrorists to get inside their heads and show them what nice people we are. Fuck that this year. It hasn’t worked for a long time. We simply have to be as nasty as they are, then, as Zeitgeist says, when we win, we can govern through higher principles. Good post.

  • Skinner

    says:

    Hey, what is the big deal in buying a $500.00 dollar pair of loafers? Everyone spends their money on what they want, so why is it so unusual for Senator McCain to buy a pair of loafers; perhaps that is the designer of the shoe he likes, perhaps that shoe fits him the best; perhaps that is his personal preferance and his personal money he is spending on his clothing; as if it is anyones business what he wears; you people need to find something real to bitch about!