McCain Doesn’t Know How Many Houses He’s Got
A new day, a new outrage. It seems that Senator John McCain is not quite sure how many houses he and his wife, who comes from a very rich family indeed, own.
When asked about it in an interview with Politico McCain answered: “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you. It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”
The interesting thing about the story, of course, is that this ‘outrageous’ article was published at the same website McCain talked to in the interview. They don’t learn from the interview that they should try to represent his political views a bit, no, they learn from it that he does not know how many houses he and his wife own. Politico proves with this ‘interview’ and article that it cannot be taken serious. It’s not a news and opinion website, it’s a rag masquarading as the former.
Politico explains: “In recent weeks, Democrats have stepped up their effort to caricature McCain as living an outlandishly rich lifestyle — a bit of payback to the GOP for portraying Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as an elitist, and for turning the spotlight in 2004 on the five homes owned by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.”
Now, this entire paragraph should have caused these ‘journalists’ - and I use this word rather loosely - to think twice before publishing this ‘outrageous’ story.
The fact that it did not proves something we all knew several months ago; they’re in it to support Obama. No matter what. They’re not a news and opinion website, they are Obama’s personal PR site. Perhaps, you know, they could have mentioned that they probably own houses for investment purposes - to earn more money, not to live in them. But no, that does not make a good story, does it?
Additionally, one wonders why it is that McCain should be informed about all the property his wife owns; she probably inherited quite some nice homes.
Of course, the point of the interview should have been to clarify McCain’s position on a number of political issues. That, sadly, is not what Politico had in mind.
From now onwards these people have to be dismisses as fakes and poseurs.
I knew Politico was always biased, helping Democrats like Obama. They’re probably funded by Democrats or MoveOn.org.
Thanks for the information, another terrible article by Politico.
Well, my first thought was that as usual, Obama’s official campaign can claim to take the high road and ignore this kind of stuff since the media outlets that are in the tank for them will do the dirty work.
But it looks like the pretense has now been dropped.
Of course McCain’s campaign has also prempted this with the following:
"The McCain campaign responded to Obama’s criticism by invoking, among other things, his ties to convicted land developer Tony Rezko as well as the handsome sum he made last year from book sales."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?" asked McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. "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?""
It seems to me to be common sense that one should know what one’s spouse owns…after all, what if there’s a divorce or unexpected death? I’m surprised that McCain wouldn’t be aware of these things.
And it’s also the sort of gaffe that feeds into fears about McCain’s age…ie is his memory starting to fade? Could this (along with his legendary irritability) be an early sign of Alzheimer’s?
It also probably doesn’t help that Ronald Regan also suffered Alzheimer’s, possibly while he was still in office. It’s something that people probably think back to when questions about McCain’s age come about.
At a time when record foreclosures are taking away many families only home, McCain’s confusion on the number of his families luxury homes should be an issue when he sides with the "Obmama as an elitist" meme. This was an issue with Kerry in 2004 and his rich wife. Why is it a fake story now?
Gee, Tom, I can’t remember how many computers I own. Guess I should get checked for Alzheimer’s. I mean, 40 is young for that, but it’s not impossible.
The answer is, when you are uber-rich, other people take care of your money and will make investment decisions that’s going to include real estate in one form or another. You CANNOT know the number of the property you own. It could be investment in land, condominiums that are set up to produce rental income, ownership of a hotel chain, entertainment centers or shopping malls, etc. I got a lot of investment ideas for that much money.
McCain and his wife even file separate tax forms because his wife’s is so complex. How could he possibly know? I bet even his wife doesn’t.
Rudi: It’s a fake story for the same reason that Dems never think that a sex scandal involving one of their own is a real story- it’s the hypocrisy, stupid, is what we’re always told.
Selin is right, except that I’d hazard a guess that McCain had a pretty good idea of how many properties there were but knew that if he got it wrong (said 6 instead of 7, for instance) that he’d be accused of having something to hide.
I think the issue is, does McCain represent the American people? Is he reflective of the average American? Can he understand what the average American goes through? The average American who will be most impacted by his policies?
The issue here isn’t what can be derived from this statement - I was tired of Obama getting a complete psychological analysis the minute he opened his mouth and I won’t go there myself.
But it is so very telling that McCain tried to cover up his weakness by printing it on Obama. Is your head in the clouds? Point at someone else. Have you been stood alone on your stances regarding Iraq and Pakistan, falling behind the curve and flip-flopping? Say the other guy is weak on foreign policy, and then you can say all manners of short-sighted, braggadocio bumf about the Georgia situation without being called out. Why? Because dismantling your lack of substance would go against the narrative, and most voters are too scared and troubled to distinguish between Bush-style Churchill-impersonation and a cerebral approach that actually is constructive and useful.
If Obama isn’t allowed to eat sissy salad then McCain doesn’t get to forget how many houses he owns in the days of foreclosures. Obama is now attacking McCain on this and that is just what I want to see. If the voters won’t react positively to Obama refusing to deal with McCain’s transparent smears, then they don’t get a better political climate. Obama is all over this and if there are any claims of hipocrisy on his part - when both candidates promised a clean campaign and McCain’s fortitude failed first- then I will simply chuckle.
McCain can say Obama is an elitist, Obama can say McCain is a projecting and hypocritical elitist with no self-distance that went for the culture war angle first.
The verbatim question was "How many houses do you and Mrs. McCain own?"
Did they mean family homes that he and his wife personally use, or does it include investment and/or vaction properties or timeshares or partial interests owned by either/or?
Earlier this summer McCain was being mocked by the left for saying he and his wife kept their finances separate. Seems they really do. Had he actually had an exact and correct answer including "all of the above" ready, the instant slam would have been to say his reponse proved they didn’t really keep their finances separate. If it were a fairly large number and he had an exact answer, he’d get class-slammed for spendthrift wealth, even if his own interest were just his primary residence. Had he answered incorrectly, having forgotten or never known about his wife’s 5% investment in a Malibu condo or something, he’d have been slammed for lying. Catch 22.
The article itself shows the difficulty in answering–it cites that Newsweek estimated the McCains between them owned interests in seven residential properties. Estimated.
Heh. As Tom Maguire out it, so in the tank they don’t even know they’re in the tank.
LOL!!! I can’t even believe this is for real:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0808/Obama_campaign_to_deploy_surrogates_to_hit_McCains_houses.html
Seriously?!?!? Wow, someone seems a bit desperate to deflect attention from the Rezko and Ayers stories that are becoming a bit awkward.
"Gee, Tom, I can’t remember how many computers I own."
You don’t? Why not? It’s not like you’re going to overlook them, mistaking them for a toaster or something.
Maybe you do need to get your memory checked.
What so funny about contrasting typical Americans with only one home, those who can answer how many homes they own and those suffering from foreclosure? From the CS link:
It’s not like the McCain camp is addressing the fake issue with this:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/08/ka-pow.html
LOL - And there was a hope that these two would run "clean" campaigns.
Even if they wanted to, the partisan haters on both sides would make it impossible anyway.
Rudi, if you can’t see the difference between issuing a couple of snarky response statements and staging a mockery with serious, high profile party officials taking part in a faux outrage, populist attack…well, then I guess we know why Democrats always manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This is such a ridiculous thing to make such a big deal over; it’s not as though anyone in the US didn’t already know that McCain was married to a very wealthy woman- we’re supposed to be shocked that he doesn’t know all the details of her family holdings? And again, I’ll point out that the reason this won’t stick is that McCain has never run on class warfare tactics- that’s deep blue territory. Anyone who will find that attack ad compelling was surely already firmly in Obama’s camp.
And then there’s the sticky issue of the Obama’s home being purchased with the help of a convicted felon…does he really want to draw attention to that?
I’m telling you, something is seriously wrong with Obama’s campaign strategists, or maybe panic is setting in.
CS, does TMV’s Joe G count as a raving Lefty? He feels this may gain traction and be used by the Demonocrats.
http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/newsweek-blogitics/21950/john-mccain-doesnt-know-how-many-homes-he-owns/
As JG also points out, Phil Grahm is back on his side, I thought Dr. Phil resigned from the staff over "whiners"?
Maybe Obamama can use Ed McMahon as one of the new homeless.
TMV is pretty reliable on taking an anti-Republican line, Rudi. They aren’t always pro-Democrat, but they are almost always supportive of any criticism towards Republicans. I once did an informal content analysis of TMV posts. Over the course of 3 days, I found (as I recall), 13 posts that were pro-Democrat AND anti-Republican, 7 posts that were anti-Republican, 5 posts that were pro-Democrat, and 1 post that was anti-Democrat. I found zero posts that were pro-Republican in ANY way whatsoever.
My perception is that Gandelmann’s site consistently fails to live up to its claim to present “left, right, and center” equally. I think this perception can be borne out as more than just a biased view on my part by a simple method of objective content analysis — count the posts/authors that lean one way or the other. There is a very consistent pattern of hostility towards all things conservative and/or Republican over a period now of many months with no sign of change either real or even desired.
Um, no comment. Best to just say that I disagree with Joe Gandleman. Time will tell whether my assessment or his is correct about this strategy.
You guess right Selin, though with Cindy when asked she wasn’t quite sure whether it was 9 houses or more.
But of course eating arugula is what makes you elitist…naturally.
I’m a McCain supporter and I understand the answer doesn’t play well. I also agree the question was difficult because his wife is very wealthy and has, I believe, a fair amount of investment property. And does keep her finances separate.
You know in ‘04 my wife would voice concerns about Kerry’s wife. My response: she’s not running. These are distraction issues useful for creating an atmosphere ( a "meme" if you will) but otherwise unimportant. "More heat, than light"
And to second what has been said many times before, this is certainly a fairly typical campaign from two candidates who claim to be and who IMHO are most atypical.
One last comment. Race has periodically raised its ugly head in this campaign and has gotten lots of press. Why hasn’t the "ageism" issue gotten more attention. I would suggest to the Obama campaign that they should be careful with this; it may have a subtle corrosive effect with potential older voters
I think one thing that liberals don’t get about the arugala/elitist bit is that the average Joe doesn’t aspire to be able to afford a trip to the Whole Foods to buy organically grown salad greens, while the average working stiff does hope to one day have enough money to invest in real estate if they don’t already.
So then among the have-nots it breaks down into those who envy wealth like that and those who aspire to it and are glad that they live in a country where it’s possible. The Dems frequently try to stir the envy part, and exploit class envy while the GOP doesn’t. So, although I thought my early reference was completely obvious, I’ll spell it out again- it’s no different than sex scandals having more effect against Republicans because they run on family values.
The McCain campaign has been portraying Obama as an arugula eating celebrity for weeks now. Obama comes out with one comment on McCain’s houses, and he’s the hypocrite?
Well, here’s what my ad would be: "McCain and Obama. One has million dollar book deals and is worrying about the price of arugula. The other doesn’t even know how many houses they own.
McCain and Obama. Both elitists. But are they ready to lead?"
Are you serious? Locate one article that points to this.
ohh Utsu - never fails.
Look at politics much - or at all? Specifically Democrats?
I have not found Gandleman to be correct on any analysis he attempts.
it was. - obviously.
"ohh Utsu - never fails."
Glad I can make you feel superior and capable of judgement. Do you really need me for that?
"Look at politics much - or at all? Specifically Democrats?"
What I am seeing is McCain being stood up at the "Never talk about withdrawal" prom by Bush and Maliki and then sneaking into the "16-month is about right" club premises when no one was looking. Or bringing out the culture war petard a little too early about the gay salad. Or getting a poor rating from veterans’ groups only to create a transparent and made-up snub about Landstuhl. Talking big and boisterously about Russia ("defeating evil"? Yeah, we’ve heard that and we got pure sickness for eight years) only to do the "prove the negative" on Obama’s apparent unfitness for the big scary foreign scene. Questioning Obama’s patriotism, using his POW history as some sort of shield - McCain is deeply unpleasant stuff through and through.
McCain would rather lose his decency, his notions about clean, non-Bush campaigning and his opportunity to bring the political climate forward than lose a campaign. He has crossed my line long ago with his flip-flopping or the hiring of economy-ruining Gramm, but his campaigning shows where he is in his personal development, and now I genuinely fear the man and the possibility of him getting even more undeserved power.
To Tom: normally it would be in a husband’s best interests to know how many houses his wife owns. But in this case, it probably doesn’t matter to him, since John and Cindy have a prenuptial agreement, and in the case of a divorce, Cindy is the one who walks away with her 100s of millions in assets.
I kind of agree with Rudi- the GOP delights in painting Dem candidates as elitists- but how much of a regular guy did George Bush turn out to be? And CS- the liberal point of view is not designed to stir class envy among the have-nots, but to expand opportunity. Many Democrats feel those in the GOP like to stack the deck so that the rich stay that way— which is why we have tax cuts that benefit them disproportionately, and corporate welfare for those who don’t need it.