Obama's Just One Of Us -- Except For How He's Not
I hate the pretension that any guy who makes it to The White House is "just folks."

Zillow estimated how long various presidents and presidential wanna-bes could afford to rent the White House, which Zillow estimates would sell for $319 million, and rent for $1.8 million a month. Philip Bump chronicled this on The Atlantic Wire:

Al Gore Net worth: $200 million Number of months of rent: Nine years, three months

Had Gore won in 2000, he would have started paying rent in January 2001. Meaning that, democracy aside, he would only have had to move out in April of 2010.

Of course, Gore's net worth is largely a function of what he did instead of being president: selling Current TV, for example. When he left office in 2001, he was worth only $1.7 million -- not enough for even that first full month.

Mitt Romney
Net worth: $250 million
Number of months of rent: Eleven years, seven months

Had Mitt Romney won last year, he'd have enough to stay in the building until August of 2024. If he could manage to get by without a car elevator.

John McCain
Net worth: $15 million
Number of months of rent: Eight months

McCain is lucky he didn't win the presidency in at least one sense. It would have been awfully frustrating to have spent all that time campaigning just to move out in September 2009.

If he were humble enough to let his wife Cindy chip in, dipping into her inheritance, he'd have $100 million at his disposal -- enough for another four-plus years.

Barack Obama
Net worth: $7 million
Number of months of rent: Four months

The president ran out of rent money in May, 2009. We're looking into how he's managed to remain living at 1600 Penn.

Poor dear, President Obama. Before long, he'll be living in some mansion somewhere, being forced to give speeches and write books for millions of dollars.