Elitist

"Debunking the Lies About John McCain's Money"

Thursday, July 31. 2008
Over at Kos they have an idea about dealing with those nasty email campaigns
barath's diary
Ok, here's the full email. I'll provide the sources for the TRUTH statements in the email below the email itself (in case the embedded HTML doesn't copy and paste well for you.) Feel free to make the first paragraph of the email a little more persuasive or creative...
I've been concerned that there are too many rumors going around about John McCain and I wanted to help set the facts straight. Please forward this email to everyone you know.
THE LIE: Combined, the McCain family has has a credit card balance that is more than $750,000 and their interest rate is 24.49%.
THE TRUTH: The McCains pay off their credit card bills on a monthly basis. The $750,000 figure is also wrong, though it is true that between January 2007 and May 2008, one of the credit cards did reach $500,000 and another reached $250,000.
Also, with a combined net worth over $100 million, most of the credit cards did not have any interest payments at all. Only their Visa, Mastercard, and Saks Fifth Avenue cards (monthly balances ranging between $15,000 and $50,000) charged interest.
::: :::
THE LIE: McCain purchased two separate $4.7 million dollar condos in San Diego for their own enjoyment.
THE TRUTH: The combined cost of the two condos was $4.7 millon, and one of them was for the kids.
::: :::
THE LIE: The McCains spent over $500,000 in 2007 on household staff, such as maids and butlers.
THE TRUTH: They increased their household staffing budget from $184,000 in 2006 to only $273,000 in 2007.
::: :::
THE LIE: The McCains spent $11 million between the summer of 2004 and February 2008 on 13 different residences.
THE TRUTH: They spent $11 million acquiring five residences.
::: :::
THE LIE: The McCains inherited a business worth $1,000,000,000 from relatives.
THE TRUTH: The McCains inherited assets worth more than $100,000,000 from relatives, but those assets are unlikely to be worth $1,000,000,000.
::: :::
THE LIE: John McCain gambles away hundreds of thousands of dollars at the craps tables in Las Vegas.
THE TRUTH: While John McCain does frequently play craps in Las Vegas in continuous 14-hour sessions, it is unlikely that he has ever gambled away $100,000 in a single session.
Now, here are the sources (in order) for those who want to know that they're not forwarding any falsehoods about McCain. (Many are from the same source.)
The McCain family credit cards.
The McCain family houses. (Also, check out an awesome google map of McCain's houses.)
The McCain family staff budget.
The McCain house purchases.
The McCain family inheritance.
McCain's 14 hour gambling stints.
Update: If you want to include McCain's $520 shoes, you can stick this block in there somewhere (thanks to UneasyOne for the idea):
THE LIE: John McCain spends $50,000 each year on shoes that he imports from Italy, South Africa, and Argentina.
THE TRUTH: Since John McCain's shoes cost $520 a pair, it is highly unlikely that he spends even $10,000 each year on shoes. In addition, there are no reports that he has imported shoes from either South Africa or Argentina.
Update 2: If you need a subject line for this email, here are two suggestions from the comments section: "Debunking the Lies About John McCain's Money" or "The Truth About John McCain's Money".
Posted by Jeff Farias at 09:31