Do you know how many houses you own?

Just checking. John McCain doesn't.

“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! …

“If you’re like me and you’ve got one house — or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so that they don’t lose their home — you might have a different perspective. 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.” — Sen. Barack Obama

But yet, Obama is the "elitist"...

You know, there are two main points to make here:

1. The only possibilities are McCain is lying, stupid, or clueless about what he owns. None of those three are very flattering.

2. Seriously, this is not an issue. Who cares how many houses he has? The only reason I bring it up is because four years ago, the Republicans couldn't stop talking about how John Kerry had married into money and had lots of houses and that made him unqualified to be President. What a difference four years makes! Now it's practically a qualification!

It's also an issue because THIS year the Republicans are trying to paint Obama as an elitist based on reasons that simply evade logic or integrity.

Here's a response from McCain camp spokesman Brian Rogers: ""This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison."

Wow. Shameless, pathetic, and nauseating.

He added, ""In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story."

What the fuck is with Republicans and arugula?!

It's almost playing like a satire, isn't it? Except people are buying this crap!

The door was already open. They are going to throw everything including the kitchen sink at Obama, he might as well hit back.

Pointing out your opponents faults isn't dirty politics. Lying is, which McCain has been doing a lot of recently.

I lost track in the 80's...

McCain hasn't run a clean campaign since the beginning.



Since when does McCain need Obama to open the door before he slimes him with lies and smears?

McCain is the one who started the attacks by trying to paint Obama as an elitist because he eats arugula. Care to tell me what the big deal is about eating arugula?

Only recently, due to book sales, and he didn't marry into it.

I tend to think as well that people who grew up poor (like Obama) watch their money a little better than elitists like McCain who never suffered from money problems.

I might own 1. I might own 0...

I don't know.

Do any of you guys know how many stocks you own? Perhaps McCain simply invests in real estate and isn't entirely sure what he owns.

Regardless, they're both rich and good for them.

Yeah. It's not like the money just POOFED and they were rich.

They're both rich, yes. That's not the issue. The issue is why McCain thinks that eating arugula makes Obama an elitist, while McCain, who owns so many homes you can't keep track of them, wears $500 Italian shoes, and tells the working class Americans that they're problems are all in their heads is not an elitist.

Actually, in McCain's case it is. He married into it.

I'm not into class envy and thankfully America traditionally isn't into it either. I like how you trot out McCain wearing $500 shoes (which were pretty sweet) and don't have a problem with Obama buying suits at Nordstroms and Bloomingdales. Those places also sell $500 shoes.

So was it just "poof" and you were married to your wife?

McCain seems to be. I guess he's out of touch, eh?



Wow, you just don't get it, do you. I don't have a problem with either of them. I DO have a problem with a guy who wears $500 Italian shoes and can't remember how many houses he owns trying to paint his opponent as an out-of-touch elitist.

No, it's poof and you're rich. Please try and keep up.

Do you take pleasure in being glib or do you purposefully misinterpret what others write?

The point here, gentlemen, is not that there is anything wrong with being rich. I'd love to be rich myself.

The point which some of you don't seem to be getting despite more than one post making it is that McCain is a hypocrite for calling the guy who worked his way up in society from poverty and became rich from writing books as an "elitist" while McCain wears $500 shoes, married into money, and owns more houses than he can remember.

The point is that the republicans are also hypocrites for, just four years earlier, attacking Kerry for marrying into money and owning more than one house. It was a stupid and meaningless attack against Kerry then and it's a stupid and meaningless attack against McCain now -- if it wasn't for the hypocricy.

Had McCain never tried to paint the poorer guy as the elitist and had the Republicans never tried to claim that marrying into money and owning lots of homes made you unfit for the Presidency, there would not be an issue here.

Purposefully misinterpret? That's a bold statement coming from you, particularly in this thread. "Gosh, people, what's so wrong with being rich, which I'm going to pretend this is about so I can ignore McCain's egregious hypocrisy."

Yea right. If Kerry never happened, this would still be happening now. I don't like it, but it's a pretty minor thing and if it works, Obama should run with it.

Mudsling in politics go back to the very early days. I mean this is nothing as bad as the election of 1800 when Hamilton was saying Jefferson was having sex with his slaves, a child killer, etc. And Jefferson called Adams a monarchist while Hamilton was calling Adams weak and spineless. Adams took the high road and sure got him far.

In his case, yes. Two months between divorcing Carol and marrying Cindy. Annualized, that's $600 million, Titanic's domestic gross!

I'm all for the mudslinging. The Rovians were going to do it anyway; I'm glad Obama found a solid opening.

That makes him middle class.