That American dream about how anybody can grow up to be president badly needs an asterisk these days. As Money magazine notes, each of the seven leading candidates (Mike Huckabee was not included) is worth more than $1 million, which 90 percent of American households are not. Here’s the breakdown of net worth, from most to least: Mitt Romney, $202 million; John Edwards, $54.7 million; Rudy Giuliani, $52.2 million; John McCain, $40.4 million; Hillary Clinton, $34.9 million; Fred Thompson, $8.1 million; Barack Obama, $1.3 million.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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20 Comments
I have a few questions, based on some of the ignorance spouted by liberals on the last Huck thread:
Has Obama ever been in management?Has Obama ever fired anyone?
Hillary has been on a few corparate boards. Walmart for one.Has Hillary ever fired anyone?
Edwards managed a law office, right? Has Edwards ever fired anyone?
Some of the bitter, malcontent leftists, on this Blog, have stated that they would never belong to “management” because “management was the enemy”.
By the financial statements of all the Democrat top contenders, it looks like they will be “Voting for Management” huh?
Even if their managers kind of suck, compared to the Republicans.
And, you can bet, everyone of the top Democrat contenders owns stock in health care companies and energy companies.Far more than me, I am sure.
Paul, I’m sure they’d all be happy to hire you just so they can have the pleasure of firing you for incompetence.
There are two sides to this. One thing to look at is, where did these people start out? We have had several Presidents in just the last half century or so who started out from very ordinary backgrounds – such as Truman, Eisenhower, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Clinton, to name a few. The lead to this thread is just misleading or misinformed. It is entirely possible to start out from humble beginnings and become president.
Of the current crop of candidates, some, no doubt, came from wealthy backgrounds (like the major party candidates in recent cycles – Bush, Gore and Kerry). But others do not come from wealthy backgrounds, and their current wealth comes from the success they have had in various fields. It is unlikely that a person who has not had any previous successful endeavors would reach the stature of a major party presidential candidate. The presidency is not an entry level job.
There are two sides to this. One thing to look at is, where did these people start out? We have had several Presidents in just the last half century or so who started out from very ordinary backgrounds – such as Truman, Eisenhower, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Clinton, to name a few. The lead to this thread is just misleading or misinformed. It is entirely possible to start out from humble beginnings and become president.
Of the current crop of candidates, some, no doubt, came from wealthy backgrounds (like the major party candidates in recent cycles – Bush, Gore and Kerry). But others do not come from wealthy backgrounds, and their current wealth comes from the success they have had in various fields. It is unlikely that a person who has not had any previous successful endeavors would reach the stature of a major party presidential candidate. The presidency is not an entry level job.
There is no asterisk needed. This blog item is implying that since typically ‘rich’ people run for President then poor kids will never be able to be President. Which is a load of wealth envy garbage. The article states that all but one candidate earned their wealth.
Being successful shows that you are capable. Many successful people acquire some amount of wealth, especially later in life. Since most candidates are past middle-aged it stands to reason that they have a measure of wealth.
What is really sad here is that an editorial columnist is saying that poor people can’t make it in the U.S. That is false.
How did Hillary Clinton ‘earn’ $34.9 Million in wealth?
Government work pays nicely, doesn’t it?
(Maybe that’s $34.9 Million in Yen)
so… why do the CONS here think romney’s venture capital money is cleaner than edwards’ trial lawyer money?
Why do they whine about edwards and hillary when their folks are also wealthy?
And when democrats nominate wealthy people, how does that translate into wealth envy?
POOR people do not get nominated by EITHER party? So… how is that wealth envy?
But nice meme. I give you style points, but no content points or degree of difficulty points.
Wow, Max. You’ve really worked hard to indoctrinate yourself to the idea that you’re being victimized by the poor, instead of seeing the obvious–that it’s the rich who are doing the victimizing.
The very fact of their success means that they have exploited the system for their advantage.Posted by: CapnAmerica | December 14, 2007 at 12:49 PM
So anyone who is rich has not earned that money? They have to exploit others to get rich?
Bill and Hillary Clinton started out poor. Who have they exploited?
To quote Molier; “Behind every great fortune is a great crime.”
Honoré de Balzac
Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.
* Translation: “The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.” This is sometimes oversimplified and distorted as “Behind every great fortune there is a great crime.”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Honor%C3%A9_de_Balzac
so… why do the CONS here think romney’s venture capital money is cleaner than edwards’ trial lawyer money? Posted by: ksfarmgrrl | December 16, 2007 at 12:06 PM
He didn’t have to stand before Jury and Judge and extrapolate ‘all the facts’ to prove his/her case. :D
Edwards “channeled” an unborn baby, during one trial.Also, the “science” behind some of Edwards claims has pretty much been disproved, were Cerebral Palsy is concerned.
Let me say, however, that the system does NEED malpractice attorneys. That does not mean that I admire the conduct of all attorneys.—–The Clintons?Well, it is a fact that they took deductions, on their tax returns, for the interest on loans that they, themselves, never paid.Whitewater, Castle Grande, Madison Guarantee Savings and Loan.The Clinton Real Estate deals were often like “rent to own” scams.Miss a single payment deadline, and “BAM” all your previous “credits” went down the tubes.I think Hillary will be rather quite on the sub-prime mortgages stuff.
She is VERY vulnerable, on realestate and lending practices.
Let me, let me!!!
BILL CLINTON!! BILL CLINTON!!!
I grew up hearing that “American Dream” bs.
It was true once.
Now? It’s mostly a lie told to keep people voting Republican.
Oh and I don’t hate rich people. I hate rich greedy people. You know, REAL Republicans.
Also?
I don’t like the idea of business people as Presidents.
Any idiot with an “in” can be a figurehead bigshot in business.
I cite one george bush.
A nation is a society of people. It is not a “human resource” pool.
JRHILLARY CLINTON HILLARY CLINTON
Oh, yah, thats right, it might be Obama.
If so, I will try to avoid the name.
sorryI meant Dennis
Proud,Having known more than my share of incredibly rich bastards, neither of our frenchmen got it quite right. Many if not most fortunes are the result of continuous, multiple and fairly mindless crimes (such as shortchanging the Indians when they pick up their oil, or buying worthless farmland for cheap and filing for landbank subsidies to not plant it) rather than a single brilliant, well executed score. These are no “Ocean’s 11″ capers!
Scam artists abound and probably always will be with us. However to paint every person of wealth as a criminal is mindless nonsense.