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August 19, 2008 11:02 AM

DNC Looks To Exploit McCain's "$5 Million" Comment

At Saturday evening's forum at Saddleback Church, Pastor Rick Warren asked both Barack Obama and John McCain what it meant for someone to be rich.

"I would argue that if you are making more than $250,000, then you are in the top 3, 4 percent of this country," said Obama. "You are doing well."

McCain, however, spoke for a minute and a half and then threw out a much higher number.

"I think if you're just talking about income, how about $5 million?" he said.

McCain was laughing as he made the comment, and added, "I'm sure that comment will be distorted." His campaign later said the candidate was joking.

Still, it's worth noting that nowhere in his response to Warren, other than in the comment above, did McCain explain what he considered rich.

He did say this: "The point is that we want to keep people’s taxes low, and increase revenues…it doesn’t matter really what my definition of rich is because I don’t want to raise anybody’s taxes." (You can watch the full exchange here.)

Now the Democratic National Committee has released a video spotlighting McCain's comment.

It opens with McCain's "$5 million" statement and then fades out as the words "Only 1 Out Of 1,000 Americans Make More Than $5 Million" appear onscreen.

McCain's claim that the "comment will be distorted" is not shown in the video.

The spot goes onto spotlight McCain and his wife's 2006 income and claim the candidate will save more than $370,000 under the McCain tax plan. It then cuts to former McCain advisor Phil Gramm's comments that "we've sort of become a nation of whiners."

It concludes with the words, "The point is John McCain is out of touch."

UPDATE: A response from Republican National Committee spokeswoman Amber Wilkerson: "Despite the DNC’s attempts to divert attention from Barack Obama’s shifting economic policies, voters can count on the fact that his plans will further hinder our struggling economy by raising taxes on American families and small businesses.”

Tags:
john mccain ,
5 million ,
rich
Topics:
Democrats
July 31, 2008 4:32 PM

Country Music Star John Rich Pens Pro-McCain Song

Move over Ludacris, another prominent musician is weighing in on the 2008 presidential campaign with a brand new song.

But unlike in the case of the controversial rapper's "Politics: Obama Is Here," country music star John Rich's "Raising McCain," seems to have the backing of the candidate he's supporting.

According to the Associated Press, Rich—who makes up half of the Nashville duo Big and Rich—plans to debut his newest song with the Arizona senator on hand at the Country First concert in Panama City, Fla., on Monday.

"He stayed strong, stayed extra long til they let all the other boys out. Now we've got a real man with an American plan, we're going to put him in the big White House," the song says before going into the refrain, "We're all just raising McCain."

According to CBS News' John Bentley, who was embedded with Fred Thompson's presidential campaign, Rich was once a dedicated Fred Head, appearing frequently at the former Tennessee senator's events. Rich even had "Fred '08" written on the neck of his six-string.

Rich's past songwriting credits include Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" and Faith Hill's "Mississippi Girl."

Rich told the AP he finished his pro-McCain song about a month ago and sent it off to McCain's daughter Meghan, who forwarded it on to the appropriate campaign officials.
Tags:
john rich ,
mccain ,
country music ,
raising mccain
Topics:
John McCain

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