Free-For-All on McCain's 'How Many Houses?'

Update: The candidates and campaigns go at it, and Obama releases an ad. More after the jump.

As David Knowles reported earlier, John McCain, in an interview Wednesday, was unable to recall just how many houses he owns, telling Politico, "I think - I'll have my staff get to you...It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you." (Audio Here)Coupled with his remark at Saddleback that $5 million is the rich people's Mendoza Line, it doesn't look good for Mac.

Now, the Democrats are piling on McCain, who has been laying the elitism charge on thick against his opponent. The DNC came up with this catchy slogan: (From TPM)

"John McCain's Message to Working Families: Money -- Don't Worry About It -- You're Rich in Other Ways."

And Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, a fading VP short-lister, pitched in with this:

"He couldn't count high enough apparently to even know how many houses he owns."

That's really funny, Tim, if you're Mr. Spock.

There is a silver lining. McCain sometimes takes heat from the left about McCain criticizing Bush's response to Katrina, when McCain himself spent that day with Bush cutting up Mac's birthday cake. In light of these new comments, it appears that McCain actually did want to help, and intended to let struggling New Orleanders eat the cake.



Although the DNC's response was pretty clever, given the lameness of Kaine's rejoinder. I think we should all pitch in and help.

It turns out that when John McCain says, "What's happenin', Homes?" he means it literally.

In response to the DNC's criticism, Senator McCain responded indignantly, "My friends, I resent the implication that I am out of touch with the American peasants."

McCain only owns so many houses because he keeps buying the wrong ones, based on faulty intelligence.

Senator McCain unveiled what he calls "A Modest Energy Proposal," which calls for all homes in the US to be heated by lighting poor people on fire with flaming hundred dollar bills, by the end of his first term.

This just in: Senator Obama's remarks on this subject: (Video)

But the fact of the matter is that John McCain is offering more of the same. He said a while back that he thought that we had made great progress economically during the years that George Bush has been in office. Now, that raised some eyebrows. Great progress economically. Who is he talking to? And it turns out that you get a sense of who he's talking to because some of you saw the Saddleback Forum with Rick Warren. He was asked, well, who do you consider rich? And he thought about it for a second, I don't know. Maybe if you make $5 million. $5 million, then you're rich. Which means, I guess, if you're only making $3 million a year then you're middle class. I guess that's what he meant. His top economic adviser said the other day that Americans should stop complaining; they've become a nation of whiners. That all these economic problems everybody is talking about is just a mental recession. And if you would just change your mind, everything would be okay. Somebody's been laid off, their plant's closed and gone to Mexico or China, change your mind. It's all good. Then, yesterday, he was asked again, what do you think about the economy? He says, Well, I think the economy is fundamentally strong; said the economy is fundamentally strong. Now, this puzzled me. I was confused as to what he meant. But then there was another interview – this is yesterday, same day – where 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. True quote. I'm not sure. I'll have to check with my staff. So they asked his staff, and he said, at least four. At least four. Now, think about that. I guess if you think that being rich means you've got to make $5 million and if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong. But if you're like me, and you've 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, you might have a different perspective. And by the way, the answer is John McCain has seven homes. So there's just a fundamental gap of understanding between John McCain's world and what people are going through every single day here in America. And you don't have to be – you don't have to be a Nobel Prize Laureate economist. You just have to have a little bit of a sense of what ordinary people are going through to understand that we can't afford eight more years or four more years or one more year of the same failed economic policies that George Bush has put in place.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers followed up with this bit of explosive rhetorical discharge: (From The AP)

"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? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?"

The Obama campaign, for their part, has helpfully sent out nine memos on the subject today, and are now launching a TV Ad.