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As various national polls show Senator John McCain cutting Senator Barack Obama's lead for the presidential race, the Obama camp has unveiled an ad reminding voters that McCain has more than just one or two houses. Politico reported that when it asked how many homes McCain and his wife owned, McCain said, "I think — I'll have my staff get to you...It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."
When his staff did get back to Politico, they said the McCains had at least four (and Newsweek reported earlier that it's more like seven). Obama has made it a point to bring up McCain's earlier remark that people with more than $5 million were rich (which McCain later tried to correct) by saying today, "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."
McCain's campaign has responded by highlighting Obama's wealth, "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?"
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Oh yeah, it's on... Finally.
Why is McCain's comment not a burn? Who has a need for seven houses? Even four...whatever dude.
There are no private beaches on Oahu. Maybe difficult access, but the beach belongs to everyone.
the gloves are off,
the "n" word and it's associations and code words will be coming out soon enough.
Wait, wait ... you mean politicians on both sides are rich, hypocritical, and detached from the reality of average American life?
Stop the fucking presses.
If the economy wasn't fundamentally strong, we'd be in much worse shape than we are now.
Didn't Obama more or less grow up in Hawaii? So maybe it's not such a luxurious decadent vacation so much as a visit home. Also, I don't have any issues with candidates being rich, being personally fiscally smart is one step towards being responsible with others money. Not a guarantee mind you, since some people just marry well, but at least they have something in the bank. Obama having more than $4mil is not an issue so much as McCain not knowing $4mil is, in fact, a lot of money.
Also, being rich doesn't necessarily make you out of touch. McCain's been a Senator for quite some time now, and he has to know his constituents' needs.
Is Obama out of touch with the needs of Asian-Americans because he's not Asian-American? Is McCain unqualified to talk about research funding because he's not a member of the scientific community?
Perhaps being rich does not necessarily make you out of touch, but not knowing how many pieces of property you own is a bad, bad sign.
You should at least be able count out loud and figure it out.
That's going to really hurt him.
Hurt them where it hurts! Hate republicans!
so what he has a lot of houses, waaaaaaaaa
If they're trying to paint Obama as an out of touch elitist, then I think this is a great way to undercut McCain's smears.
Love it.
More here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlZ-_Sstt5I
Democraps suck
Ha ha! "Democraps!" Genius! Did you think of that or is it from something? Oh my god that is rich.
in john mccains bizzaro world, I'm rich and I don't even know it. I bet he wants to trade places with me now.
Wait, wait ... you mean politicians on both sides are rich, hypocritical, and detached from the reality of average American life?
Stop the fucking presses.
Obama only became rich after his book sales. Before that, he was still a nobody. Trust me on that one.
McCain is married to an heiress. 7 houses... meh. How many does Bloomberg have? How many does George Soros have?
Still, the man should have some idea of how many residences they own and he should have been prepared to be attacked for being wealthy.
Obama only became rich after his book sales.
Depends how you define rich. By John McCain's $5 million a year standard then no, the Obamas were not wealthy. But by Al Gore's "wealthiest one percent" definition Michelle Obama alone put them pretty close. She was not making chump change as an associate with a Harvard J.D. at Sidley Austin and at the University of Chicago Hospitals she was making about $275,000. Throw in $50,000 for her board position and whatever Barack made teaching law. He must have got something for being a state legislator and now he gets a Senate salary. Is he Cindy McCain? No. But perhaps he should have stopped before saying, "But if you're like me, and you've got one house. . ." No, 99 percent of America is not like you. If the Obamas wanted additional property they could have afforded it.
All of his tax returns are out, and in the years before the books, they weren't pulling down big money. They only bought that house after the books.
And McCain is totally in touch with his consituents needs. Just ask all of the Arizonans how happy they are with him.
even in mccains world, michelle is not rich.
it didn't pass his 5mil threshold.
unless she's rich in some other way. maybe rich like chocolate rich.
besides obama explained what he considers rich or what he said doing well, he did his homework.
Whether McCain or Obama are rich and whether they married into wealth or earned it on there own aren't all that important. If wealth is a gauge of success in life I suppose I'd guess a wealthy person would make a better president than someone who is destitute.
That John and Cindy McCain own several houses isn't important. That John McCain doesn't know how many houses bothers me. Why doesn't he know? Why didn't he say the honest thing "My wife inherited a lot of money from her father. She owns several homes. We spend time in four of them and the others are investment properties." That he is asking for our vote to be president yet doesn't have command of the simple facts of his life is worrisome.
#15 you suck a lot more than most democraps
I don't know about you, but...
I'm voting for the guy who knows how many homes he owns
I'm voting for the guy who knows knows the difference between Sunni and Shia
BUY YOUR BUMPER STICKER OR BUTTON TODAY!
http://www.cafepress.com/obamapotus
I'm voting for the guy who knows how many homes he owns.
Why would Obama expose his wife and children to his racist Grandmother?
What the hell is a "code word" for the "N" word, Jackoff? Inquiring minds want to know.
see previous political ads from the Reagan years.
why are you even asking? shouldn't you be playing with your squirrels mr. bernie Geotz??
if anyone ought to know these words it's mr. bernie goetz.
we all know the code words, even the main stream media knows them.
That John McCain doesn't know how many houses bothers me. Why doesn't he know?
Why doesn't the press get off their asses and find out? I just watched Chris Matthews wondering the same thing and his possible explanations are that it's Cindy McCain that has the money so maybe she owns the houses and John McCain isn't involved in her investments. Well, as a member of the press maybe Chris Matthews could do something to earn his enormous salary i.e. tell an intern to do some research.
So Obama played the envy card and you guys ate it up.
Not too hard to anger those who 'hate' 'rich' people!
4 years ago we did not care that Kerry was married to a BILLIONAIRE, but somehow it is important this time around how much one of the candidates wife's makes.
And I thought the wives were off limits?
No, johnnye, as has been clearly said by several of us, the problem isn't that John McCain, or more properly Cindy, is rich. The problem is that a man running for president doesn't know how many houses he owns. Nor does he know how to answer a simple question about how many houses he owns.
Obama didn't play the envy card. When you say that you make something up out of thin air. What Obama did was to use McCain's mistake to his advantage by pointing out that McCain is out of touch with the average American. I would expect no less out of a presidential candidate and expect McCain to take advantage of Obama when he makes a mistake.
Johnnye,
Furthermore, McCain has repeatedly accused Obama of being an elitist. The man who wants to maintain Bushes tax cuts for the richest 1%, the man who doesn't even know how many homes that he owns is calling Barack Obama an elitist...
...and Obama is swinging back. Get used to it.
The problem is that a man running for president doesn't know how many houses he owns. Nor does he know how to answer a simple question about how many houses he owns.
Why exactly is this a problem to you? How does this make him any more or less out of touch than the other rich men and women in Congress? Frankly, this is a non-issue. So much for "change".
During the 1992 election, George H.W. Bush visited a supermarket and was astonished by the scanner at the checkout lane. Everyone then wondered what planet this guy had been on for the last 20 years. He was seriously out of touch. So now comes John McCain, not even knowing how many houses he owns. Even the wealthiest people know how many houses they have. It ain't a nuke, but Obama's got a pretty good JDAM there.
During the 1992 election, George H.W. Bush visited a supermarket and was astonished by the scanner at the checkout lane. Everyone then wondered what planet this guy had been on for the last 20 years.
No, it was a grocer's convention, not a supermarket. Bush was being shown new scanning technology by an executive from NCR that could read torn bar codes as well as weigh items while scanning them. Video tape of the convention shows Bush clearly referencing his familiarity with what was the standard scanner of the time and how this was an improvement. Many witnesses said Bush was simply acting polite, not expressing amazement. The story did not get traction until picked up by a New York Times writer who wasn't even at the convention and embellished what had been written by one of the pool reporters that was there. Time and Newsweek called it a non-story.
we get it, Bush buys his groceries at the supermarket and get's peeved when the bar code can't be read. just like us.
we get it, he's one of us, he's not elitist. he knows how to use a supermarket check out scanner.
I get so damn po'ed when those bar codes are torn, too.
Ah, so you don't actually know any of these "code words" yourself. Figures.
All of you haters better get used to it. President Obama. It's going to be your reality soon soon soon!!
Just because I think this is a stupid story doesn't make me an Obama hater. Funny how you are so defensive.
figures mr. bernie geotz would be so dense.
are you not "all American" or something?
You mean other than the fact that the Republicans painted him as a rich, out of touch, liberal elitist?
Well, to play devil's advocate they didn't say that being rich makes one out of touch or elitist. You can be pretty average and still be an elitist and/or out of touch.
I personally found Kerry to be an elitist but not out of touch.
#19 East River, you forgot the end of Obama's statement - is was an "or" sentence. Full quote (my italics):
"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."
The points that Obama's trying to make are simple:
a) McCain has no business painting Obama as an out-of-touch elitist, when he's far wealthier than Obama - and has been in the ultra-wealthy circles for sometime. (Note that McCain married Cindy Hensley circa 1980, so he's been rolling in the dough and benefiting from the Hensley family's connections for a long time, in addition to having the Naval pedigree from his father's accomplishments.)
b) McCain's economic proposals, which include extending the "Bush tax cuts" that largely benefit the wealthy and further exacerbate the country's wealth gap at a time when the position of the middle and working class is tenuous, while seeking to paint Obama as someone who will "raise your taxes" betrays a fundamental lack of understanding about the nation's economic picture. More importantly, the fact that McCain has no real solutions to eliminating the huge deficits caused by policies in the Bush Administration (and backed by people like McCain), indicates that he really is out of touch with the needs of the "average American."
Just sayin.
i feel like there's so much dirt on mccain, just waiting to be unloaded during debate season. gonna be nuts.
Anna, I saw the whole quote and it doesn't change the fact that most people are not like Obama. Maybe he should have just stuck with the second half of the sentence. He's trying to paint himself as "everyman" and he isn't. And he thinks he can get away with it because this election cycle it's the Democrat that has less money.
out-of-touch elitist, when he's far wealthier
Valid only if you assume that wealth equates being out of touch. I know plenty of people with far less money that are total elitists. And I know people with far more money than Cindy McCain and you would never know it from talking to them or observing their lifestyle.
For the record I didn't give a damn about Kerry's money in 2004 and i don't care about McCain's now. Both sides are being hypocritical. But apparently only some of us can see that.
And I don't like McCain's tax proposals but if you think the wealth and income gap in this country is mainly caused by tax rates you are going to be in for some disappoint over the next 4 to 8 years. Income gap was at it's lowest in the late 60s and early 70s. Globalization puts downward pressure on the manufacturing jobs and rewards those that require higher levels of education. Hell, there was a study reprinted in the Times last year that said women in the workforce is responsible for something like 20 percent of the growth in the wealth gap. High earning women marry high earning men. Not much you can do about that.
And on the deficit, I haven't seen one study that says Obama's plans will address the deficit. One study says McCain's plans would add about $4 trillion to the debt and Obama's would add $3 trillion. You'll have to excuse me if I don't get excited abut this.
Thanks, EastRiver. Goes to show how scrambled the story gets by the time it reaches the masses. I recall the pundits having a field day with that one. I wasn't reading Time or Newsweek at the time, I was reading the Village Voice, so you can imagine...