Capuccino Conservatism
Joe Romm’s already looked at the carbon footprint of John McCain’s eight home lifestyle, but I think you’ve really got to wonder about the implications of this kind of behavior:
For the second day in a row, Sen. John McCain wanted his morning cup of Joe.
So he gathered his staff, his drivers and his Secret Service agents. He alerted the media to stand by. The bomb sniffing dog was woken up. He put on his sunglasses and baseball cap and headed out.
The six-car caravan (two silver minivans, two tan SUVs and two white 15-passenger vans for the press) left his cabin retreat at just before eight in the morning. Eleven minutes later, the caravan pulled into the parking lot of a Safeway, where a sign proclaimed the presence of a Starbucks.
Cindy McCain, clad in a light pink shirt, khaki shorts and flip flops, paced in front of the Safeway, talking on her phone for a few minutes, her hair pulled into a pony tail. A bit later, she went inside the Safeway and emerged with a coffee cup in hand. A staffer was seen coming out of the Safeway with two cups of coffee and some drycleaning.
Clearly, somebody with a full presidential campaign staff — to say nothing of $273,000 in servant expenditures — could have sent one person in one vehicle to pick up coffee (and dry cleaning) for whoever wanted some rather than deploying a six-vehicle caravan. And the switch from the wasteful means of coffee acquisition to the efficient one would, in practice, have entailed very little welfare loss from McCain. But decades of public policy in the United States aimed at encouraging lavish energy consumption leave people not thinking about these kind of issues. Given sensible carbon pricing and smarter policy that aims at encouraging efficiency — or at least stops encouraging waste — and people (at least those who haven’t married heiresses) would pay a bit more attention to the energy use implications of these kind of choices.
62 Responses to “Capuccino Conservatism”
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August 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hey. What’s with the canadian starbucks cup?
There is such a thing as overdoing the progressive slant, you know.
-Un fidèle lecteur canadien
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
But…he’s a POW!! They didn’t have Starbucks in ‘Nam!!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:03 pm
There is some value in going to Starbucks yourself – it is nice to get out of the house and maybe it’s the only time John and Cindy get to sit and talk like they used to when they were dating.
The Starbucks in Sedona is pretty nice and has an excellent view. Starbucks inside Safeway stores are not *real* Starbucks – and I’m pretty sure the one McCain visited it is in Cottonwood and not even in Sedona.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
But…but…he’s a POW!! They didn’t have Starbucks in ‘Nam!!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
He could have all that staff brew it at the ranch. $5 for a bag of coffee and 2 cents for the power. No cars involved at all.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Jesus, the Obama campaign gets more desperate by the minute. How many of you on the email list are going to blog about this ridiculous point?
Look, if one’s carbon footprint now includes the press and Secret Service, well, really, do you think Barry’s going to come out of this looking good? He’s had Secret Service protection for months longer than McCain, and always has more press followers.
And, no, Matt, there isn’t an interesting public policy point here. The government will pay whatever it costs to protect presidential candidates, and the press will be unlikely to concern itself with small costs when the alternative is allowing someone else to have the story, and presidential campaigns aren’t noted for being thrifty and accountable and so they will go on wasting incredible amounts of money. Presidential candidates will continue to go out for coffee and go to the gym and so on, and everyone else will follow them.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:07 pm
Wow, that is some seriously banal reporting.
Ssssloooooow…
Nnnneeeewwws….
Daaaayyy….
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I seriously doubt either McCain has ever given .00001 thought to their carbon footprints (see houses, private plane, etc.). When you have the financial resources they have, they are used to the world being their oyster & probably give no thought to anything but their creature comforts. I’m not being snarky, just realistic.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Preventing McCain from traveling by way of caravan (hopefully they’re playing the Ellington song as they brave the country side) will prevent growth! YOU AREN’T AGAINST GROWTH ARE YOU??? ARE YOU??????
One day we may all be lucky enough to be lifted out of our pits of celebrity-worshipping despair and become one with the the McCaravan. Now that’s growth we can believe in!
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Now, on the other hand, if Sen. and Mrs. McCain, and their staff, and their agents and press had all gotten on bikes and ridden there, think of how much obesity would’ve been fought all at once. Additionally, they’d have had a fun little convoy, kind of an ad hoc bike parade through Sedona.
That’d be swell, wouldn’it?
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Hey, McCain’s not some kind of arugula eating, latte sipping elitist that has to send out “the help” just to get a frickin’ (sorry Matt, fucking) cuppa Joe. He’s a salt of the earth, red blooded american man — he sends his wife. And remember to get the dry-cleaning this time, c**t.
Look, the McCain painting Obama thing isn’t about who is richer; that’s not the point. The point is who is more pretentious. Guys with tons of money who clear brush at the ranch are rich, but are regular guys. Guys with some money who eat arugula are uppity — I mean pretentious. Definitely meant pretentious.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Six-car motorcade for capucino! Who the heck is running the McCain campaign? If the whole media complex wasn’t so busy scornfully laughing about the eight houses thing this would surely be the crucial “swiss cheese on my philly steak” moment. Manly POW types drink Maxwell House. Or Sanka, if they’re having trouble getting up during the night too often.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:25 pm
I hear the McCains employ a similar system for getting Cindy laid.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
It’s official:
“Snark” is going to be the most over-used word this election.
Seriously folks, find a new word.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
This is stupid. What public policy encourages sending a six car caravan to pick up three cups of coffee? And what policy initiative could possibly increase the cost of sending a six car caravan enough to make a difference to the McCains and not be unduly burdensome on regular people? There is not a public policy solution to every problem.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
See, if McCain lived in a walkable neighborhood, the whole thing with the motorcade to go get coffee would have been completely unnecessary.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
“But…he’s a POW!! They didn’t have Starbucks in ‘Nam!!”
Yeah, but they don’t need Starbucks, their coffee is awesome already (Starbucks wouldn’t be able to compete). But I’m more of a tea drinker, and their iced green tea rocks.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
For Christ’s sake, how about making it at home? What is he paying his servants $175,000 to do anyway?
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cW9iMEJDhHU/SJnTsLotwYI/AAAAAAAAAEc/IqyEIldgbA0/s1600-h/PROCESSEDMcCain2008.jpg
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
What kind of coffee did he get? If it’s just black coffee, then he’s still a real man. If it’s some kind of milky drink, then he’s a pansy elitist.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
“This is stupid. What public policy encourages sending a six car caravan to pick up three cups of coffee? And what policy initiative could possibly increase the cost of sending a six car caravan enough to make a difference to the McCains and not be unduly burdensome on regular people? There is not a public policy solution to every problem.”
How about a lil expenditure on a lil war over in some lil ol oil-providing region? Meaning the subsidization of the oil industry and oil thirsty lifestyles.
I don’t want to be all elitist and start telling people what will make them happy, but maybe, just maybe, spending valuable time and money on long commutes isn’t the best way to live. Hell, taxing oil might be good for the people who really need a break–the poor who already can’t afford to both drive and eat–by driving the creation of better public transit.
Then again, maybe it’s just really manly and American to drive an SUV a few blocks to pick up some sort of non-arugula item at the store.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
He could simply brew a pot a coffee. No caravan needed for that.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
No choice about going out, really. Cindy looked like she was about to ask him to pull a hard-on.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Surely Cindy and her staff could make the duplicate of a cup of Starbucks or any other cup of coffee right in one of her fabulous kitchens. Or damn close anyway. Starbucks is hardly the only satisfying strong cup of Joe. Maybe Cindy is addicted to it and will accept no substitute but that doesn’t explain the 8 car entourage.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Whatever, Matt.
Anyway:
Is that a picture of the actual cup McCain got?
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
GOP readers, compare and contrast the complaining about McCain’s wastefulness/extravagance with the hoo-ha raised about the Obama fist bump. I wouldn’t have spent a second moaning about McCain’s caravan for a cup of coffee, but I sure wouldn’t have tried to find terrorist overtones in the way the Obamas greet each other. The GOP wanted a campaign about trivia and now they’ve got it.
Is the moaning about it insincere? Probably. You’re trying to run away from the horror that is George Bush. I wouldn’t want a campaign about genuine issues either.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Um, how about you buy a package of coffee at the supermarket, and brew a nice big pot at home? Isn’t that what normal, red-blooded Americans do, rather than go to that elitist establishment, Starbucks? After all, wasn’t it Starbucks that popularized lattes in the first place??
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
GOP readers, compare and contrast the complaining about McCain’s wastefulness/extravagance with the hoo-ha raised about the Obama fist bump. I wouldn’t have spent a second moaning about McCain’s caravan for a cup of coffee, but I sure wouldn’t have tried to find terrorist overtones in the way the Obamas greet each other. The GOP wanted a campaign about trivia and now they’ve got it.
This is the doctrine of Mutally Assured Stupidity.
August 22nd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
You know, the sunglasses and baseball cap are going to make the bomb-sniffing dog kinda, stick out. Ya know?
.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Shut up your aragula eating D&D playing punk, maybe they have starbucks every block where you smoke pot but back in nam they had no starbucks.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Gimme a break…!
I loathe McCain just as much as the next dyed-in-the wool progressive, but if the guy wants to run out for a cup of coffee, it’s not HIS fault the whole circus has to follow.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:08 pm
“If it’s just black coffee, then he’s still a real man.”
If you drink anything lighter than Turkish coffee, you’re a pussy. Real men don’t filter.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I agree with Heron. You’d think that someone who owns 7-10 homes worth 13 Million, he could afford a cappuccino machine in each house/condo. Probably trying to keep the electric bill down. This way he can charge it to the secret service.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
McCain is losing his touch. He should have gotten Starbucks for the whole press contingent and we would have never heard about this.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Real men drink Dunkin Donuts coffee anyway – not that “Grande” elitist bullshit. This is America. Speak english. Somebody check his fridge for arugula.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
The most ridiculous part of that whole report is the mislabeling of the sprawling McCain estate as his “cabin retreat”. There are levels of deception in that choice of terms that could take weeks to fully ferret out and explain.
McCain’s Sedona property is NOT a cabin. Via Digby, here’s Jamison Foser of Media Matters on the subject:
That’s right. The “cabin” has a guest house.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Do you think Barry’s going to come out of this looking good?
Probably don’t want to start a juvenile name-check war when your preferred candidate is Johnathan Sydney McCain III.
Just sayin’.
I can remember a time when you guys used to be good at this kind of stuff. To quote Scott McClellan, “Wha’ happen?”
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
“Somebody check his fridge for arugula”
What the hell is arugula, anyway? I’m one of those elitists that Republicans like to talk about, and I’ve never even heard of this substance. It’s probably shown up in my salad (like many other unknown plant materials), but I certainly don’t buy it intentionally. I’m starting to think that the only people who really eat it are Republican pundits.
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
I’d like to see a crackdown on these presidential entourages in general. The president should not need to travel around the country like royalty. Are they so worried about their self importance that they can’t stand to arrive anywhere without a band playing Hail to the Chief? The secret service needs to be reined in.
Arugula is just a kind of lettuce that tastes a little peppery. They tend to serve it at fancy restaurants to make the salads seem fancy. I remember it being kind of the hot thing about ten to fifteen years ago.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Tell us more about that wonder-dog.
What’s its name? What does it like to eat?
That’s obviously the real story here!
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 am
Can’t McCain just install a Starbucks in each of his houses?
August 23rd, 2008 at 10:43 am
HIs “cabin” is 11 minutes from a Starbucks! How rustic!
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:45 am
This blog has fallen off the quality train recently. I read Yglesias for the policy analysis, fresh ideas, etc. All I’m getting the last week or so is “John McCain’s rich and out of touch! See, he has houses! He drinks coffee!” We get it. Enough. Please.
How about a discussion some time soon regarding potential impact scenarios of the announcement of Joe Biden. I would prefer something along the lines of “Here are the policy implications; here are the electoral implications.”
However, based on your writing the last week, my guess is your Joe Biden analysis will be something along the lines of “Biden’s wife died, McCain left his first wife. This is a clear indicator that McCain is bad.”
I hope I’m wrong. I hope you come up with something substantive, but your recent obsession with McCain’s wife and her real estate holdings doesn’t make me think you’ll come up with anything with depth any time soon.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:07 pm
It should be called a luxury “vacation complex.” How did they refer to Hyannisport and Kennebunckport, anyway?
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