Poor Mouthing

by Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Why do so many candidates talk about their humble upbringing and sometimes even pretend to be poor? Let’s face it. Most of the presidential candidates this year are quite rich. They pay more in taxes each year than most of us make in a year. Still they tell us a story that sounds like it was taken from a biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Other commentators have noticed this. Victor Davis Hanson refers to them as “Log-Cabin Candidates” and Ian Tuttle says those pretending not to be rich are “Poor-Mouthing.” Sometimes it gets a bit irritating.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are easily worth more than $100 million but you wouldn’t know it from some of the things she has said about their finances in the past. She graduated from Wellesley College and Yale Law School and grew up in the affluent suburb of Chicago.

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio talk about their impoverished fathers. But Ted Cruz is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. His wife worked at Goldman Sachs. Marco Rubio’s dad may have been a bartender, but he used some of his $800,000 book advance to buy a 24-foot boat that he always wanted.

John Kasich has served as both governor and U.S representative. He is also a former investment banker and regional director of Lehman Brothers. Yet he nearly always mentions that his father was a mailman.

And let’s not forget Barack Obama who talked about and wrote about his Kenyan father who abandoned his family. He rarely mentioned that his grandparents were well off and that his grandmother was a Bank of Hawaii vice president.

For some reason, politicians think they have to pretend they aren’t rich. But there is one major exception: Donald Trump. He has done quite well this campaign season, and he certainly does not hide the fact that he is rich. If anything he brags about it. Perhaps the other candidates should learn from him and stop pretending what they aren’t.
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Kerby Anderson is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service

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