Do you know how many homes you own?

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 8:22am

You would think that would be a rather easy question. Not so for John McCain:

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told us in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

[StockardFan]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 8:42am

Must be nice.....

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 8:48am

I always forget about my pied-à-terre on the Cote d'Azur.

[JohnBoy2]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 9:17am

This is strange? If you have a lot of something, I don't find it particularly odd that you can't remember or wouldn't even know how many you might have. I'm sure someoneone else manages this for him. Certainly not as bad as forgetting if you did a role. I once said to someone that I had never done My Fair Lady, and he replied, "Yes you did, I saw you in it!" I looked at him like he was crazy. My wife reminded me that I went into a production of it, for 3 weeks, as Freddy, but I had done so many shows that I completely forgot about it. Now thats strange.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 9:23am

I can relate to McCain. It's difficult to keep track of all my homes.

At last count I had 27, not including the one New Orleans.

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 9:27am

0

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 9:34am

Whether Cindy has 6 or 26 homes, the tool wasn't even smart enough to just say "a few" and move on to the next question.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 9:50am

But let's all remember, Obama is the out-of-touch elitist.

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 10:39am

I have several...but they all look like this:

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 10:51am

Is that Cindy McCain up on the 3rd floor?

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 10:53am

LOL, hey, a rooftop deck is nothing to sneeze at!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 10:56am

With all those "dolls" she better watch the stairs!

She's already convinced an angry Pocahontas is hiding in the day room on the right.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 10:57am

No, Cindy's the one scarfing pills in the bathroom.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:07am

I have four!

But I'm thinking of trading them in for a hotel.




*checks JB2 into Shady Pines*

[tazber]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:12am

My summer home:

[tazber]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:13am

my winter home:

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:15am

Spring home...




Fall home...

[tazber]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:16am

The home I share with Tink:

[Jane2]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:17am

I see you made a killing in the real estate market, Taz, you tycoon!

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 11:36am

The answer, for McCain, is seven. And we can't let him have an eighth:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/Obama_Seven.html?showall

Edit: the McCain camp responded by pointing out that the Obamas earned $4m last year. However, by McCain's standard that $5m is 'rich', that only makes them middle class.

Updated On: 8/21/08 at 11:36 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 12:06pm

I own somewhere in the vicinity of zero.

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 1:36pm

From Salon.com:

Reported from the campaign trail today, Obama pounces on McCain's inability to identify how many houses he owns.

"Somebody asked John McCain, 'How many houses do you have?' And he said, 'I'm not sure, I'll have to check with my staff,'" Obama said with a tone of incredulousness at an outdoor event here.

"If you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy is fundamentally strong," he said. "But if you're like me, and you got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, then you might have a different perspective."

Suddenly, laid-back Obama is getting tough. What's that Emily Dickinson said about the wounded deer leaping highest?

Another update: The McCain campaign apparently fails to realize that it would be smarter to let this story just die. Spokesman Brian Rogers just released this rhetorical question: “Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?”

Um, actually, yes I think he does. The house ratio is at least 4:1, perhaps as high as 8:1. And at least Obama knows the answer to the question, which is more revealing. This is the equivalent for McCain of George H.W. Bush's infamous supermarket scanner moment.

At each campaign stop, Obama ought to start dipping into the front row of his audiences, say "I have one home," and proceed down the line with the microphone and query five or six people, "How many houses do you have?" The networks would gobble that up. You think Karl Rove or Steve Schmidt wouldn’t instruct George W. Bush or McCain to pull the same type of stunt if the mortgages, so to speak, were on the other tax filing?

Get your calendars and diaries out and mark down today's date: This could be the tipping point when the mantle of "out-of-touch elitist party" began to shift.

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 3:08pm

The McCain camp is doing everything in their power to deflect this topic. They've spent the day trying to revive Rezko in every conversation, and believe it or not, they're mentioning that McCain was a POW! I didn't know that, did you?

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 3:17pm

Well, sh*t...that was fast!
Obama's New Attack Ad

[madbrian]

Posted: 8/21/08 at 3:21pm

Even faster than that, borstal. Look four posts prior to yours in this thread.