From The Hotline Latest Edition for Friday, April 18,2008

MCCAIN

Tax Return To Sender

Fri. Apr. 18, 2008


John McCain released his '06 and '07 tax returns today.

The returns show that in the past two years, he paid $157,231 in federal taxes, and he and his wife, Cindy, have contributed $340,323 to charitable causes.

Among the other notes on the tax returns (for more information, see here):

• McCain and his wife "have kept their personal finances separate throughout their 27-year marriage." And "accordingly, they have for many years filed separate tax returns." However, AZ "is a community property jurisdiction," where individuals "maintain a separation of all property brought to the marriage, or inherited during it, but share financial responsibility for other assets acquired through the efforts of each spouse during the marriage." This means that their tax returns "report one half of each of their community property income and expenses."

• For '06, McCain paid $72,771 in federal income, alternative minimum, and self-employment taxes on taxable income of $215,304, which is a 33.8% tax rate.

• For '07, McCain paid $84,460 in federal income, alternative minimum, and self-employment taxes on taxable income of $258,800, which is a 32.6% tax rate.

• McCain "donates his royalties from his books to charitable organizations" -- over $1.8M since '98 "when he signed his first book deal." McCain earned $256,898 in book income for '06 and '07, comprising earnings from Faith of My Fathers," "Worth the Fighting For," "Why Courage Matters," "Character is Destiny," and "Hard Call."

• Beginning in '91, McCain has donated "the increase in his Senate salary for that year and each subsequent year to charity because he opposed the Congressional pay increase at that time and pledged not to accept the pay raises. The cumulative total of these donations" is over $450K.

• C. McCain "will not be releasing her personal tax returns" (release, 4/18).

Meanwhile, in advance of the release of McCain's records, the DNC sent out a memo noting that since '76, every GOP or Dem nominee, except Ronald Reagan, "released at least six years of records" (Hotline sources).

His Name Is Yoshimi, He's A Black Belt In Karate

McCain "plans to spend next week reaching out to African-Americans, displaced factory workers and people living in poverty -- voters not usually associated" with the GOP.

Starting 4/21, McCain will stop in AL's "Black Belt," the "struggling steel town" of Youngstown, OH, and the Appalachian region of KY. McCain "is also trying to make it to New Orleans." McCain: "I want to tell people living there that there must not be any forgotten parts of America, any forgotten Americans" (Jackson, USA Today, 4/18).

Among McCain's stops will be one in Martin Co., KY, where he will attend a town hall meeting on 4/23. McCain "will see firsthand a county with stubbornly deep pockets of poverty, though local officials point to considerable progress" since Lyndon Johnson visited the co. to declare his "War on Poverty" a generation ago (Schreiner, AP, 4/17).

It's A Gas! Gas! Gas!

McCain's plan to cut taxes and balance the budget "wins praise" from fellow GOPers, but "economists and nonpartisan analysts say his numbers don't add up."

McCain's proposal would extend Bush's tax cuts, "reduce the top corporate rate, repeal the alternative minimum tax and double exemptions for dependents." And according to figures from his camp and the Treas. Dept., the price tag at the end of McCain's second term would be $3.3M. McCain "said that would be offset by eliminating pork-barrel spending, freezing a portion of the budget, and Medicare savings."

However, Concord Coalition exec. dir. Robert Bixby says the "huge imbalance is that the tax cuts are specific and large and the spending cuts are small and vague" (Donmoyer/Benjamin, Bloomberg, 4/18).

Meanwhile, the response to McCain's economic proposals, especially the gas tax holiday, continued:

• Newark Star-Ledger's Mulshine writes, McCain "came out with a proposal the other day that was every bit as clueless as his many gaffes on Iraq." His gas tax holiday fails to "take two things into account: Supply. And demand" (4/18).

• Detroit Free Press' Dzwonkowski writes, McCain's gas tax holiday "has populist appeal, but wouldn't amount to much and is probably more trouble than it's worth" (4/17).

• Washington Times editorializes, McCain's "math doesn't add up." He "needs to provide much more detailed information about how he intends to balance the budget" (4/18).

• Dayton Daily News editorializes, the gas tax holiday is "an awful idea" (4/18).

• Meanwhile, TX oilman T. Boone Pickens says he supports McCain, but doesn't care for some of his recent proposals for dealing with high oil prices. Pickens: "I'm hoping that he'll get better informed and come up with better ideas about energy than I've seen up to now." Pickens, asked his opinion of McCain's overall energy platform: "What is his energy platform?" (Power, "Washington Wire," WSJ.com, 4/17).

And He Played Real Good For Free

"Facing the prospect of competing against" a Dem "who is on track to shatter every fundraising record," McCain has "largely been forced into devising a three-pronged strategy that they hope can turn their general election weaknesses into strengths."

McCain "will lean heavily on the well-funded" RNC. He will "merge key functions of his campaign hierarchy with the RNC while also relying on an unconventional structure" of 10 regional mgrs. And finally -- "and perhaps most importantly -- McCain will rely on free media to an unprecedented degree to get out his message in a fashion that aims to not only minimize his financial disadvantage but also drive a triangulated contrast among himself," the Dem nominee and Bush.

McCain advisers "acknowledge they have little choice but to seek free entry into the media marketplace, as they have no chance of matching" Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton "in a dollar-for-dollar ad war." But aides "also hope they can turn necessity into virtue and argue that by facing tough questions from reporters on his bus each day and potentially even tougher ones from audience members at frequent town hall meetings," McCain "will demonstrate how he's different from two politicians who are far less accessible."

McCain senior adviser Steve Schmidt: "People in the country are in a very bad mood, and they want to have change. And the first place they evaluate change is through the prism of what kind of campaigns candidates are running. Voters will have an indication of the different kind of presidency he would preside over by looking at his campaign" (Martin, Politico, 4/18).

Longer Than There've Been Fishes In The Ocean

Despite a recent promise from DNC Chair Howard Dean not to make McCain's age an issue, ex-America Coming Together pol. dir. Steve Rosenthal has started a new website, "Younger than McCain," designed to draw attention to just that fact.

The current content amounts to a 90-second video listing the things younger than McCain -- a list that includes the Golden Gate Bridge, plutonium, Coke in a can, and Velcro, among "many, many other things" (Cillizza, "The Fix," WashingtonPost.com, 4/17).

The Searchers

The DNC has filed a number of FOIA requests with Cabinet-level agencies and inter-agency depts. "looking for opposition research to use against" McCain.

In early Feb., "there was a sharp uptick in the number of FOIA requests from the DNC with McCain as a specific target." And Feb. "was about the same time McCain emerged as the front-runner and likely nominee." A review of FOIA requests and independent confirmations turned up requests from the DNC "at at least three agencies" -- the FDA, the Interior Dept., the FEC, and the Commerce Dept. (Youngman, TheHill.com, 4/17).

You're My Favorite Mistake

Time's Klein writes, McCain "has laid down some pretty clear markers that he sees this election in much the same way that Obama (and Hillary Clinton) does." He "wants to have a substantive debate about the war, he believes that climate change is a major issue, and he has begun to acknowledge the economic pain visited upon manufacturing workers in places like" MI and OH. "If he persists in seeing the election this way and running on his convictions, he will be doing" the Dems -- "and the nation -- a great favor."

"I suspect that he will. It's McCain's way. He sees the tawdry ceremonies of politics -- the spin and hucksterism -- as unworthy. He's not one to put on silly hats; his physical disabilities limit his capacity to engage in bowling photo ops. His shtick is substance, the endless access granted to reporters on his bus. The problem for McCain," though, and the "opportunity" for Dems, "is that his positions are either unpopular or sketchy." The problem for Dems, meanwhile, "is that McCain has the potential to steal, or take the edge off, some of their favorite issues by offering more moderate-seeming, if sometimes totally inadequate, answers" (4/17).

Planning On Outraising Obama With Lapel Pins

McCain "is using his stellar military background and pedigree to give heft to the traditional campaign lapel pin."

His camp "has turned two Navy-inspired lapel pins into formidable fundraising bait." The pin "being promised this week to prospective donors -- if they give $100 -- is a rectangular black and white lapel pin with the McCain logo in Optima typeface embossed below a naval star. It usually sells for $150." And another popular pin "sells for a whopping $200 -- that's the 'McCain nautical lapel pin.'"

"It's unclear how much money the McCain pins have netted, but both rank among the hottest selling items on his website store" (Yanez, Miami Herald, 4/18).

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