McCain's Swaddles Himself in $7,500 Worth of Quilts

Republican presidential candidate John McCain set out on a tour of America's "forgotten places" Monday, and along the way he met a few black people, heard a few black spirituals, and tossed around his wife's Black Amex to score a few museum-quality quilts from the locals with which to warm his snow-white balls on the campaign bus (okay, he paid with a check, but still). The cost of those quilts: an estimated $7,500 for a set of three.

The obvious questions: Does throwing around this kind of cash ingratiate McCain with the locals, or does it make him seem like just another rich white bastard? And was it an issue for McCain that these were probably not gay quilts?