Cindy McCain refuses to release her tax returns

National Review, June 2, 2008

Cindy McCain refuses to release her tax returns. "This is a privacy issue. My husband is the candidate," she said on the Today show. The McCains have filed separate tax returns for 28 years. Mrs. McCain, who inherited one of the nation's largest Anheuser-Busch distributorships from her father, may be worth as much as $100 million.

"What is John McCain trying to hide?" asked Howard Dean. We assume nothing. But the age of financial discretion is long gone. Our candidates live in fishbowls. So do their families, and this applies to the resources of wives and husbands. Cindy McCain is within the law to keep her business to herself, but she is not within the mores of contemporary politics.