What Could You Do With 300K?

Cindy McCain's Ensemble

2012-09-05T07:31:00.000-07:00

Reports indicate that the value of Cindy McCain's outfit for the first night of the Republican National Convention was approximately $300,000.

That got us thinking, what other things might she and John McCain have bought with that money?

Feel free to post suggestions in the comments, just be sure to include a citation. Facts do matter, honestly.

A Nice New Shiny Fort Rucker

2008-09-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

The McCains could have personally paid for the repair, maintenance, and construction of roads, airfields, and parking lots of medium size military base, Fort Rucker (Alabama) for example.

Guide to Community Organizing

2008-09-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

First you'd have to believe that community organizing was helpful, but assuming they cleared that hurdle for $300,000 you could purchase 22,107 books on community organizing.

Or better still 19, 218 books about how to Win Your Election the Wellstone Way

Copies of the Constitution

2008-09-05T15:43:00.000-07:00

$300,000 will buy you 101, 694 copies of the Constitution That's enough for every single New Hampshire Republican who supported John McCain to get their own copy, with enough left over to give to 86% of his supporters in Utah one as well. You never know, it might come in handy.

Race the Iditarod

2008-09-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

Even with race organizers planning to increase entry fees, $300,000 would still pay for 75 entries into the Iditarod. Though that would leave just 25% of the slots for non-McCain-Palin sled teams.

Americorps Stipend

2008-09-05T14:19:00.000-07:00

For $300,000 Cindy and John McCain could have paid for 28 AmeriCorps volunteers to help recruit and train others to work on issues of disaster preparedness - in Phoenix.

Disabled Veteran's Benefits

2008-09-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

With $300,000 you could provide disability benefits for 25 Vietnam Veterans for a year.

(Click here to support DAV)

AZT

2008-09-05T14:07:00.001-07:00

$300,000 could buy a year's supply of AZT for 109 people

Eyeglasses

2008-09-05T14:07:00.000-07:00

Now that the market for eyeglasses has globalized a pair can be had for as low as $8. At those rates, $300,000 would buy you 37,500 pairs. That is enough pairs that rvery person in Juneau, Alaska's second biggest city, could receive one with several thousand left over.

Keg of Budweiser

2008-09-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

$300,000 is enough to buy 3,260 kegs of Budweiser, though you'd figure since Cindy's family fortune came from being a distributor they might get a better deal.

Botox

2008-09-05T13:52:00.001-07:00

$300,000 could buy 813 Botox treatments or enough to stay in a constant state of facial paralysis for 203 years

Plumpy Nut

2008-09-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

$300,000 would provide 8,571 children with Plumpynut (a famine relief food).

Pizza at Moose's Tooth

2008-09-05T12:15:00.000-07:00

Cindy and John would have to visit Anchorage to spend their money buying 19,354 large pepperoni pizzas from Moose's Tooth but it's worth the trip.

93.9 Tons of Pennies

2008-09-05T10:49:00.001-07:00

$300,000 worth of pennies is 30M coins.
They would weigh about 93.9 tons.
When laid flat, they'd take up s bit more than 117,000 square feet.
When stacked, they'd be nearly 30 miles high.

The stack would be three times the size of the stack pictured here:

Airplane(s)

2008-09-05T07:22:00.000-07:00

$300,000 is enough to buy back Governor Palin’s airplane on ebay and then buy another as a spare.

Teleprompters

2008-09-05T07:20:00.001-07:00

$300,000 is enough for the McCain's to buy 176 teleprompters

Moose Hunting

2008-09-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

$300,000 is enough to buy 257 days of guided moose hunting

22 Years of Work

2008-09-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

$300,000 is equivalent to 45,801 hours worth of work at the current minimum wage (or 1,145 weeks at 40hrs per week. That’s 22 years of working at minimum wage)

Art classes

2008-09-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

$300,000 could buy art classes for 1,775 children at the Des Moines Art Center

School Desks

2008-09-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

300,000 is enough to buy 6,037 school desks or 3.2 school desks for each of the children under 18 living in Wasilla.

33 Bass Boats

2008-09-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

$300,000 is enough to buy 33 bass boats

Slot Machines

2008-09-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

$300,000 is enough to buy 153 slot machines. It seems John likes to take changes, likes to gamble.

DVDs

2008-09-05T07:06:00.001-07:00

300,000 is enough to buy 24,549 widescreen DVDs of the movie 300 (with shipping of course).

Gold Medals

2008-09-05T07:04:00.000-07:00

300,000 is enough to make 1,000 gold medals.

Social Security

2008-09-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

300,000 is 249 months of social security for the average 72 year old male recipient (or 20 years and nine months).

Airtravel

2008-09-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

300,000 is enough for John McCain to buy 705 round trip (non-stop!) tickets from Phoenix to Washington, DC.

Gas

2008-09-05T07:01:00.001-07:00

300,000 is enough to buy 81,521 gallons of gas at the national average.