As Election Day nears, John McCain continues to deploy Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher as a human shield against Barack Obama and his plan for middle class tax cuts. But while Wurzelbacher himself admitted he would fare better under Obama, another of McCain's representative Americans is set to receive a massive windfall if the Arizona Senator is elected. No doubt about it, Mrs. McCain - Cindy the Beer Heiress - would pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to her husband.

That the McCains are fabulously well off - as the $100 million beer distribution fortune, the 11 homes, 13 cars and a private jet attest - goes without saying. And as she reported in her two-page IRS summaries, Cindy McCain earned $6.1 million in 2006 and another $4.2 million in 2007. (Most came courtesy of her late father's Hensley & Company, Arizona's leading distributor of Anheuser-Busch products including Budweiser.)

But while as many as 100 million Americans would receive no benefit from President McCain's tax proposals, his wife would be awash in new-found cash. As the Center for American Progress detailed in June, the McCains would reap a $373,000 bonanza should he win the White House:

McCain favors making the Bush tax laws permanent, and also plans to repeal the Alternative Minimum Tax, double the dependent exemption and offer tax breaks on business income...Had McCain's tax proposal been in place in 2006, [they] would have done incredibly well - saving even more than they did under the existing Bush plan. John and Cindy McCain would have walked away with $373,429 in their pocket.

Of course, given that McCain's tax plan is radically more regressive than even that of President Bush - it delivers 58% of its benefits to the wealthiest 1% of American taxpayers - it's no surprise Cindy the Beer Queen can expect a jaw-dropping payout.

But Cindy's winnings don't end there.

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Vanity Fair: 

Cindy McCain('s first night of Republican National Convention outfit)

Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000
Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500
Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000
Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000-$25,000
Shoes, designer unknown: $600
Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100 

Wow.  That's about 60 times the health care credit McCain proposes to give families for a year.   And according to Huffington Post, George W. Bush helped cover the expense:

According to an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, the McCains have received $313,413 thanks to George Bush's tax cut.

If John McCain were President, she might have been able to add a bracelet to the ensemble. According to the same study under McCain proposed tax cuts they would have received tax breaks of $367,788.

Maybe it's that level of elitism that caused CNN to flash a chyron saying that McCain had officially won the Democratic nomination.

Download | play   Download | play   (h/t Heather)

Cindy McCain says that Obama's attacks on her man for not knowing how many houses he owns have "offended" her.

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos reports: Democrats' attacks on her family's wealth are unfair and offensive, Cindy McCain said today in an interview airing tomorrow on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

For nearly two weeks, Democrats have repeatedly hit Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for saying he is unaware of how many houses he owns, calling the presumptive Republican presidential nominee out of touch with everyday Americans.  In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention on Thursday, Democratic nominee Barack Obama turned up the heat on McCain, saying he "doesn't know" about the lives of middle-class Americans.

"I'm offended by Barack Obama saying that about my husband," said McCain's wife Cindy.

When asked if Obama went too far in his criticism of McCain, Cindy responded, "I do. I do. I really do."

Boo freaking Hoo! John McCain was born the son and grandson of Admirals but couldn't hack it as a military man. He finished almost the last in his class, crashed more than he was shot down and set fire to a carrier. Then he went into politics and dumped his crippled wife for a rich one to finance that move. As that rich woman's husband, he thinks that $5 million makes you "middle class and thinks poor folks are just "whiners". Criticisms of him as out of touch, elitist and uncaring are absolutely fair game for a politician of his background seeking to be president -especially when he's done the same and worse to a man who really did come up from humble roots. He's not just a celebrity who is entitled to personal space - he's seeking to be the people's top employee and his attitudes matter.

Oh, and Cindy? When you agreed to let John send you off on his own mini-foreign policy jaunt to Georgia (hey John, only one president at a time, remember?), you stepped over that line between rich celebrity and political servant of the people too. That means that when you defend your husband's third hand wealth - he got it from you, who got it from your father - then talking about the American Dream might not be the best idea. Unless, of course, your version of the American Dream involves illegal trafficking (bootlegging), corruption and the Mob.

   Washington Post:

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, is headed to the Republic of Georgia, where tensions between the government and Russia have sparked international concern and have become an issue on the presidential campaign trail.

McCain announced to a group of fundraisers in Sacramento that his wife was headed to the country, but the campaign did not provide any details about the trip.

McCain has been very aggressive in his condemnation of Russia's invasion of Georgia, and his campaign has been critical of Obama's more measured response when Russian tanks first pushed into the country.

McCain spokeswoman Jill Hazelbaker confirmed Cindy McCain is enroute to the nation and said she is visiting as part of the World Food Program. She said she will meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and visit with wounded Georgian soldiers. Read on...

Can you imagine the absolute outrage from the right and John McCain if Michelle Obama was going on a trip to another country at war to meet with their wounded soldiers? John McCain has already used the U.S. military as political fodder, and now he's sending his wife Cindy to exploit unwitting Georgian soldiers too.  I guess having a campaign adviser who also lobbies for Georgia sure has paid off. 

  Christian Science Monitor:

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

I wonder if Cindy got her cookie recipes from Mother Theresa, too.  It speaks volumes about the woman who hopes to be the First Lady of our country. 

More at The Political Base...

Eight years ago, then Governor George W. Bush revealingly joked about his backers at the 2000 Al Smith Dinner. "This is an impressive crowd - the haves and the have-mores," Bush said, adding, "Some people call you the elites; I call you my base." With his own quip Saturday night that "$5 million" is his definition of rich," John McCain made no mistake that he is Bush's natural heir.

Now, there is nothing wrong with being happily rich and utterly detached. Nothing, that is, unless you make criticizing your political opponent as "elitist" and "out of touch" a centerpiece of your campaign. Which is why McCain beat a hasty retreat in an interview today with the Politico. (In that same interview, McCain with no sense of irony called lobbyists "birds of prey.") Without naming a number, McCain said:

"I define rich in other ways besides income. Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires."

Of course, by any accounting, the $100 million McCains are fabulously well-off (see the gold-plated details below the fold). But John McCain's staggering detachment from the real lives of the American people can truly be measured in dollars – and sense.

For starters, McCain in April declared that there had been "great progress economically" during the Bush years. On more than one occasion, he diagnosed Americans' concerns over the dismal U.S. economy as "psychological." (Phil Gramm, McCain's close friend and adviser supposedly excommunicated over his "whiners" remarks, was back with the campaign last week.) McCain, a man who owns eight homes nationwide, in March lectured Americans facing foreclosure that they ought to be "doing what is necessary -- working a second job, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets -- to make their payments on time." And when all else fails, McCain told the people of the economically devastated regions in Martin County, Kentucky and Youngstown, Ohio, there's always eBay.

In his defense, McCain's shocking tone-deafness may just be a matter of perspective. When you're as well off as he is, anything below a $5 million income (a figure exceeding that earned on average by the top 0.1% of Americans) seems middle class by comparison.

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   Oh, you think we're making that up?  CNN, my friends:

 McCain felt so comfortable at the [Sturgis Motorcycle Rally] event that he even volunteered his wife for the rally’s traditional beauty pageant, an infamously debauched event that’s been known to feature topless women.

“I encouraged Cindy to compete,” McCain said to cheers. “I told her with a little luck she could be the only woman ever to serve as first lady and Miss Buffalo Chip.”

Download | play    Download | play   (h/t Heather)

But hey, "Chip" is a whole lot nicer than that other C-word he called her in 1992.   We wish her a little luck, too, on the "Miss Buffalo Chip" part.  

In this unretouched screen grab from McCain.com [no link you go find it yourself] ...McCain Nation? A powerful grassroots tool?  Featuring Cindy?    Oy.  I can't figure out if they're paying Comedy Central for this stuff, or if some staff infiltrator is being incredibly ironic...

It appears that we hit too close for comfort with the McCain campaign when we brought up the topic of the "Sugar Momma Express" use of Cindy's private jets for the campaign, because now they're lashing out. Too bad they have to make up things to complain about. Greg Sargent:

In an email blasted out to the media this morning, the McCain camp noted that the DNC had sent to reporters this article about Mrs. McCain.

"When will Sen. Obama do as he promised and `speak out against' Howard Dean and the DNC for their attacks on Mrs. McCain -- or at least demand they stop?" McCain spokesperson Brian Rogers asked in the email.

I received the DNC's email this morning, too. And nowhere in the email does the DNC attack Mrs. McCain.

The article that the DNC drew attention to reported that the McCain campaign had failed to reimburse Mrs. McCain for a flight in her company's private jet to New York City, where she attended a fund-raiser for her husband. The article quotes two Republicans criticizing the campaign for this.

The entire email from the DNC consists of criticism of the McCain campaign -- not Mrs. McCain.