dan collier

The January 2008 issue of Money magazine has an interesting article titled “Millionaires-in-Chief” on the finances of some of the candidates for President. It is not online (yet?), but the most interesting part is the following information:

The group above is what Money, a Time-Warner publication and CNN partner, states are the “top White House contenders” in ‘08. The idea that Fred Thompson is more popular or likely to win than Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul seems far-fetched. Perhaps Huckabee, Paul, and Dennis Kucinich were all left off the list because they are not millionaires. If so, that is a shame because Obama’s comparatively modest $1,300,000 net worth is an endearing trait in a presidential contender.

Barack Obama addressed that issue in a recent meeting with The Boston Globe’s editorial board:

And he argued that his relative newness is an advantage because he’s only four or five years removed from dealing with balancing his credit cards and a year removed from buying his own groceries — he’s still connected to the daily aspirations and concerns of Americans.

Obama, whose campaign promises a new kind of politics, said he and his wife Michelle talked about that a couple of days ago.

“She said, ‘We’re still pretty normal.’ ”

Also presented in the Money article are the top book sales for the same group of candidates. Hillary sold the most with 1,384,000 copies of “Living History” (2003). Barack Obama was second with 1,080,000 copies of “The Audacity of Hope” (2006). Rudolph Giuliani was third, having sold 836,000 copies of “Leadership” (2002).

Update 10 Dec 2007: The article is now up at CNN Money. Here is the text of the article, and here is the more interesting part: “Where they got it… and where it goes“.

politics posted by: dan @  08 Dec 2007 16:05

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