McCain Not Sure How Many Homes He Owns

This is not the kind of headline that a candidate for president wants floating around in these tough economic times. But there it is, via Politico:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"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."

Ouch. As I wrote a couple days back. I'm not a fan of stoking populist anger by pointing out that a candidate is rich. Wealth in itself doesn't necessarily mean a person won't do great things for those less fortunate. Take Michael Bloomberg as an example of a guy who really does care about the poor.

That said, the fact that McCain doesn't know how many residences he owns, be they condos or not, will not endear him to the middle class voters who are struggling in today's economy. And the "I'll have my staff get to you," reeks of Thurston Howell III like nobody's business. "Lovey, call up the servants and ask them how many fabulous homes we own!" I mean, really, are there so many properties that McCain couldn't have done the math in his head? If you can't remember how many homes you and your wife own, either you have too many homes, or your memory is slipping.

The McCain campaign has often portrayed Obama as an elitist in this campaign. My hunch is that they'll stay away from that line of attack for a while.

UPDATE: And just like that, the Obama campaign is up with an ad: