My teeth used to look worse than McCain's

Yes, they were badly stained and also unevenly worn.  I'd had a run of bruxism and ground them down so far the dentist was unwilling to clean them, for fear of removing the rest of the enamel.

In 2003 I was told that if I didn't start getting them capped I'd lose them, because the molars were all worn down to the dentin.

The solution, available to anyone with the means to pay for it, is "full dental rehabilitation."  Basically you get them all capped, and the new caps aren't duplicates of your old teeth but a sculpture that elevates your bite and restores what is lost.  The caps also can be colored to match your complexion, and being porcelain once installed they don't stain like real teeth do.

Unfortunately, I couldn't afford $30,000 to get it done.  That's about what it costs in the US.

So, as I've written elsewhere, I had it done in Mexico.

Ten thousand dollars was reachable, but is still a lot of money for me.  I'm not running for President, I'm not married to a beer heiress, and I'm not a sitting US Senator.  I'm not running for public office but I had it done anyway when I could.  It stuns me that someone who is running for office and who does have the means wouldn't take care of such a problem.  For many of us it's unachievable; over the years I have referred over a thousand people to my Mexican dentist, nearly all of them drawn to my article through the magic of the Google.  I still get one or two emails a week from that article after almost five years.

And of course, many of us can't even afford to get it done in Mexico.  Most of us who even have health insurance don't have dental, and those of us who do find that it won't cover a procedure like full rehabilitation.  Oh, it might knock 30% off but you're still out so much out of pocket that a lot of people who could save their teeth end up getting dentures instead.

I think Kos was right to point out the teeth, not because yellow teeth are a disgrace, but because yellow teeth in an easily retouched photograph of a person with the means to easily physically correct the problem is a sign that someone, somewhere, doesn't understand the nature of what is going on.  That's what Kos was pointing out; it's amateur hour in the McCain camp if they couldn't even bother to touch that up in photoshop.  Much less if McCain can't be arsed to spend what would be pocket change for a man of his means to put forth the best possible face in a campaign of this importance.