Perhaps only one word can be used to describe all of the leading presidential contenders: multimillionaire.
Compared to the Average American Family
Barack Obama, with the lowest asset total of all candidates, is worth 25 times more than the average American household. Mitt Romney, with the highest asset total, is worth 1075 times more than the average American household. On average, the major Presidential candidates have assets of 47 million dollars, or 505 times the average American household.
Data
Rudy Giuliani – 40 Million Dollars
Mitt Romney – 100 Million Dollars*
Hillary Clinton – 51 Million Dollars
John McCain – 35 Million Dollars
Barack Obama – 2.5 Million Dollars**
John Edwards – 50 Million Dollars
Average American Household – .093 Million Dollars (93 Thousand Dollars)
*This number represents an average from the lower quintile from several sources that estimate Romney’s total assets
**This figure is from May 2007 and do not include revenues his highly profitable book ‘The Audacity of Hope’.
Note: Personal assets of presidential candidates do not include the assets of their spouses. Most notably, assets for the McCain’s and Clinton’s is much higher when their spouses are factored in.
If you ever wonder about Fox News editorial objectivity, look no further than today’s politics page on the Fox News website, pictured below:
Of the 11 stories, I counted 4 negative stories on Democrats (Did the New York Times’ MoveOn deal break the law?, Feds to indict Norman Hsu in $60 scheme for donations to Democrats – this was also the front page story entitled ‘Dirty Dem’, Bad Medicine – Mitt Romney slams Hilary Clinton’s health care plan, Hilary Wants to Change Our Country). Compare this to the 2 negative Republican articles (one of which is actually just a video of minority leader Boehner refuting Democratic charges for 3 minutes) and the two positive Republican stories (Safe at Home? on Bush urging Congress for permanent expansion of electronic surveillance and the article on the Republican primary in Florida, Romney slamming Hilary’s health plan).
So, to recap on the Fox News politics page: 4 negative stories on Democrats, 0 positive stories on Democrats, 3 positive stories on Republicans, and 1.5 negative stories on Republicans.
1982 – Several Congressional pages allege drug use and homosexual relations are occurring between the male interns and members of Congress. Among the accused is Republican Senator Larry Craig. (PBH)
1998 – House Republican Majority Leader Newt Gingrich, while leading the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton for his extra-marital affair, serves divorce papers to his wife the day she undergoes surgery for cancer. His second divorce, Gingrich had also be engaging in an affair with a female intern while his wife underwent cancer treatment. (CBS News)
2004 – Republican State Senator Ed Schrock from Virginia aborts his 2004 election campaign abruptly. Representing one of the most conservative areas in Virginia, including Pat Robertsons Regent University (who was also a personal fan of Schrock), Shrock championed several anti-gay bills in the State Congress, including the Marriage Protection Act. He would be forced to resign a few weeks before the general election when it was discovered he had left several messages on a gay phone dating service asking for casual sex. (NNDB)
2006 – A gay activist alleged he had spoken with men who had sexual encounters with [Senator Larry] Craig, including an anonymous man in the restrooms at Union Station in Washington. (SFGate)
September 2006 – Mark Foley, Republican Congressman from Florida, is forced to resign after transcripts are revealed of sexually explicit emails and instant messages from him to teenage boys serving as Congressional pages. With a history of inappropriate conduct by Foley dating back at least 10 years, he had been warned about the matter in 2005 by another House Republican and the House Clerk. (ABC News, USA Today, ABC Blotter)
November 2006 – Ted Haggard, leader of the National Association of Evangelicals, resigns after a male prostitute, Mike Jones, goes public about a three year relationship between Jones and Haggard. The affair included Haggard paying Jones for sex and the purchasing and use of crystal meth. Formerly, Haggard’s group championed a platform in 2004 entitled For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility that asked evangelicals to engage in a culture war over homosexuality, and personally professed, “we don’t have to debate about what we should think about homosexual activity. It’s written in the Bible.” (NYTimes, Rocky Mountain News)
August 2007 – Florida State Rep. Bob Allen (R), a co-chairman of John McCain’s presidential campaign in Florida, is arrested for offering to pay to perform oral sex on a police officer in a public park. When Allen was questioned after his arrest, he explained, “This was a pretty stocky black guy, and there was nothing but other black guys around in the park,” said Allen… Allen went on to say he was afraid of becoming a “statistic.” (Crooks and Liars)
August 2007 – Glenn Murphy, Jr., the recently elected chairman of the Young Republican National Federation (also the Republican National Committee Chair for Clark County, Indiana and formerly the YRNF Secretary, was accused of sexual assault on another Young Republican member. This was the second time Murphy had been accused of performing unsolicited oral sex on other males, as indicated by this 1998 police report on a previous sexual assault charge: (America Blog)
August 2007 – Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) is arrested for soliciting sex in a men’s bathroom in a Minnesota airport. Craig has one of the lowest rankings from the ACLU for Gay Civil Rights and was one of the primary leaders during Bill Clinton’s impeachment. (AP, Crooks and Liars)
Know of other indiscretions that were missed? Add a comment and a link, and I’ll include it on this post.
The Civil War in Congo continues to rage despite elections since 2003.
Every 9.62 days, there is an equivalent amount of casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan as September 11th.
Pictures of the Israeli military Occupation in the Palestinian territories
Underrepresentation of Minorities in the US Government
Abu Ghraib Prison Abuse
The Rwandan Genocide, after multi-party parliamentary elections, Hutu extremists murdered almost a million Tutsi’s with machetes and small arms as the international community looked on.
