"As with Sens. Clinton and Obama, McCain's personal wealth is dwarfed by that of his spouse."

Not that it really matters, but I wondered about this. Michelle has a higher salary than Barack, but not a higher income. Apparently she comes from a fairly normal middle class home. How is it that her wealth dwarfs Barack's, just out of interest?

She's sure as hell not worth anything like $40 million....

Most of their wealth is relatively recent and comes from royalties from Obama's book. I thought that was a weird off-note, too.

Your point is well-taken. Not that Slate will issue any form of correction or clarification. It's too bad you didn't edit this piece. Your post is evidence that Slate also needs a good fact-checker or two.

Thanks for the feedback. That sentence was badly constructed, as the result of trying to express too many thoughts in one place. It's certainly true, as some of the commentators have noted, that once Barack Obama began writing books, his income exceeded that of his wife. But for many of the years for which they've released returns, her income has been larger than his. Of course, the sentence therefore also conflates wealth with income, which is itself a mistake.....Anyway, we're going to do a separate piece on the Obamas' finances. And agitate: yes, fact-checkers would be welcome!

Hmm, well I do need a job. :-)

I don't think it's that big a deal -- I don't think Bill Clinton is an "elitist" for all his wealth, for example. But Obama's career choices do reflect on the priority he's given to community service, so it's nice to be clear here.