Dave2 I didn’t think to Google it first to see if someone had done the math already, but you’re right. And one of them has a convenient link to 666, which is neat. At least I was glad to find my ~$600m figure to be referenced elsewhere, although by a different method.

Hilly, yup, that’s a good way to put it. Although it might be the strategically advantageous thing to do, it still feels underhanded and I can’t go for underhanded.

Ren, heh, I read some of the link and I like how he sais “I don’t know how he plans to fix that, maybe make minimum wage $1,000 and hour or a federally mandated salary cap?” And the 7 out of 8 of richest CEO’s donating Democratically ought to tell you something. This whole class envy still has me defensive. I liked it when SNL did a parody of Ross Perot’s presidential bid where Dana Carvey basically said if he brings up the economy 3%, that’s $120 billion growth and he gets a billion dollars.

Poppy, Sorry I failed you on the completely dedicated part. It was only somewhat dedicated, but I did do some custom artwork!

You should vote for whoever you think you should vote for, not for whoever I think you should vote for, because I have my own vote for that.

Your next post better be completely dedicated to the GH tourney!

Regarding your voting strategy question, I’m not sure it seems worth the risk. Note that I voted in the Democratic primary despite the fact that I am not likely to vote Democratic in the actual election. As you said, voting in the Republican primary seemed fairly useless, so I figured I might as well express my opinion among the Democratic candidates. I did not, however, do so strategically, as you suggest. Rather, I just selected the candidate I favored among the reasonable choices. (I’m not very likely to vote Republican in the actual election either, by the way.)

Obama’s “10-minute math” has been calculated up hundreds of times (literally… do a Google search!). Personally, I don’t have a problem with it, because a top CEO has income far exceeding their published salary alone, and a huge chunk of the population lives under the poverty line, so numbers could be made to say anything. What I DO have a problem with is his distinguishing CEOs from other very wealthy people, as you noted. In this respect, he’s kind of hypocritical… but not towards Oprah, who is CEO of Harpo Productions. Slamming one of his biggest supporters is pretty ballsy, but what does she care? She’s obscenely wealthy!

Of course if Obama were promoting ACTUAL “class envy” he wouldn’t restrict his reach to just CEOs… he’d be rallying against ALL of the wealthy. As it is, he’s just trying to illustrate how CEOs get their wealth at the expense of the people working for them (I make 500 million, but my employees can’t afford to go to the doctor!). I may not entirely agree with this, but it does resonate with voters, and that’s all ANY politician ultimately cares about.