Both Barack Obama and John McCain must accept that spouses of presidential candidates are legitimate subjects of public discussion. Protecting a spouse from intrusion into his or her private life is understandable, but a candidate is wholly mistaken to suggest his wife’s statements on the campaign trail about why he should be elected aren’t fair game for criticism, or when he contends his wife’s sources of income should be of no concern to voters. Obamais guilty of the former, McCain of the latter.
First, Obama. He whined early Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning, America” that campaign criticism of his wife, Michelle, is “unacceptable.” But Mrs. Obama is an active speaker on his behalf on the campaign trail.
On Monday alone, she made three campaign speeches in Kentucky. Her comments are often biting and contentious. How, then, can Barack claim she is immune from criticism even as she criticizes other candidates and public officials — to say nothing of her own country, as when she said she had never before been proud of the United States?
It is unfair to voters for the Obamas to demand that she be allowed to use fighting words without being subject to, yes, a fight.
This appears to be part of a disturbing effort by Obama to exempt himself from fair comment on legitimate issues, as with the lengthy list noted recently by National Review’s Rich Lowry of issues Obama wants to put off-limits to debate.
As for McCain, he and wife Cindy refuse to release her tax returns. She has a legal right to keep them private, but legality isn’t at issue here. What is at issue is John McCain’s willingness to be subject to credible transparency and accountability.
Even if a husband and wife officially segregate their incomes, family money is fungible. That is why it has become standard practicefor presidential candidates to release their tax returns — so the public can decide for itself if any income sources look fishy. It should it be expected of spouses to do the same.
Mrs. McCain is estimated to be worth as much as $100 million. Just as it was absurd for John Kerry to say his wife’s views or vast fortune should be immune from examination, or for Hillary Clinton not to report her husband’s tens of millions in post-presidency “earnings,” so, too, is it nonsensical for McCain to say his wife’s money is none of the public’s business.
McCain has made a career of railing against the allegedly corrupting influence of money in politics. That fact doesn’t give him a “Get out of Jail Free” card on the issue.
