Throughout the campaign, there have been various trivialities that have taken on enormous political significance. Nearly everyone can no doubt rattle more than a few examples off the top of their heads — haircuts, arugula, bowling scores, lapel pins, etc.
But I have a hunch not one of these is as humiliating as this one.
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.”
It’s one thing to be so extraordinarily wealthy that you own multiple homes. It’s another to be so extraordinarily wealthy that you can’t even remember how many homes you own.
There’s been at least a half-hearted effort on the part of Democrats lately to characterize McCain as out of touch with the concerns of regular ol’ working American families. There’s been a more subtle effort to paint McCain as old and befuddled.
By struggling to count his own number of homes, McCain has done Democrats an enormous favor. I’ve seen some equate McCain with Grandpa Simpson, and I’ve seen some equate McCain with Mr. Burns. It turns out, he’s both.
Time’s Mark Halperin reported this morning that Dems are planning a “major offensive” on this, and intend to “hammer the Arizonan” over his comments. I can’t say I blame them. This is a slow, hanging curve, right over the middle of the plate.
Now , for accuracy’s sake, I should note that there’s been some question as to exactly how many homes McCain actually does own. I’ve heard some Dems argue he has six, while Newsweek recently pegged the number at seven. McCain’s staff told the Politico the correct answer is “at least four.”
By one count, the actual number is actually 10.
But in most respects, the exact number isn’t especially relevant. The point is a) McCain is so rich he owns a lot of homes; b) McCain is so out of touch he can’t even remember the number of homes he owns; and c) despite his extravagant wealth, McCain is anxious to push an agenda that favors the rich even more while screwing over the middle class and working families.
Over the course of the campaign, McCain has offered a couple of doozies. He talked about keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years. He described the Social Security system as a “disgrace.”
But this is the kind of humiliating story that can really hurt. Everyone in America heard about Al Gore claiming to have invented the Internet (despite the fact that never happened). Everyone in American heard John Kerry said he “voted for it before I voted against it.”
And fairly soon
, if there’s any justice at all, everyone in America will know that John McCain is so out of touch, he’s lost count the number of homes he owns.
In the midst of a housing crisis, with foreclosures skyrocketing, and with McCain offering a regressive economic agenda, this story is quite a gift to Democrats. Expect to hear a lot more about it.