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Posted
Friday, April 18, 2008 6:18 PM
| By
Christopher Beam
John McCain’s released
two years of tax returns today to little fanfare. We learn that he earned $405,000
in 2007. We learn that he’s giving his ex-wife $17,000 a year in alimony. What
we don’t learn, though, is how much he’s getting from his current wife. That’s
because the returns don’t include the assets of Cindy McCain, whose beer
fortune is estimated
at more than $100 million—a reminder that McCain would be the first
president to have signed a prenuptial agreement.
The decision not to combine their assets has had pros and
cons. On the one hand, McCain was able to distance himself from her money when
conflict-of-interest issues arose
during his first House campaign in 1982. (He took a salary from Hensley,
Cindy’s father’s company, for public relations work.) But these days, there’s a
major downside: He can’t spend her money on the campaign trail. Normally a
candidate can spend up to half of the assets from a joint account, if the
spouse agrees. Had the McCains decided to fully merge their assets three
decades ago, he would probably be having much less trouble on the
financial end.
Then there’s the moral aspect. In a race that has feature
the thrice-married Rudy Giuliani, McCain’s marital situation doesn’t seem particularly
controversial. But some Americans might look askance at a prenup, commonly
considered leaving the door open for divorce. McCain is already on rocky
footing with so-called values voters, given his stance on issues like embryonic
stem cell research. (James Dobson in particular is famously
displeased.) His marital arrangement isn’t likely to endear him either.
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