While John McCain's awkward appearance Monday with President-elect Barack Obama was a reminder of what he had lost, he and wife Cindy nonetheless received a consolation prize. Belgian beverage giant In Bev completed its acquisition of Anheuser-Busch, the beer company in which Mrs. McCain holds millions of dollars of stock.
As it turns out, John McCain left the presidential campaign trail with quite the parting gift. The $52 billion acquisition of Anheuser-Busch means the McCains will be adding to their $100 million fortune, 11 homes and 13 cards. Cindy McCain is set to earn a staggering multi-million dollar pay-day from the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch by the Belgian beverage giant, In Bev. As the Wall Street Journal reported in July, Mrs. McCain runs the third largest Anheuser-Busch distributorship in the nation, and owns between $2.5 and $5 million in the company's stock. Amazingly, while AB's home-state Missouri politicians of both parties lined up to try to block the sale, John McCain held a fundraiser in the Show Me State even as the In Bev deal was being finalized.
Sadly for Mr. and Mrs. Maverick, their winnings would have been even greater had John McCain won the election.
As both the financial crisis and his slump in the polls deepened, candidate John McCain in October proposed slashing capital gains taxes (a halving from from 15% to 7.5%). Unsurprisingly, the gains from his scheme would have gone overwhelmingly to the richest Americans (almost 60% of its benefits to families earning over $1 million a year), including his wife:

The McCains made $746,395 in capitals gains last year. A new analysis by Michael Ettlinger, Vice President for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, reveals that McCain's capital gains cut would have reduced the McCains' taxes by $55,980 in 2007.

And those dollars pale in comparison to what Cindy McCain will bank for tax year 2008.
Alas, it was not to be. But as John McCain returned to the Senate today, he did not arrive empty handed. John McCain, this Bud's for you.