Why it's important that McCain has more houses than he can count
Holly Shelves
August 26, 2008

Suddenly, John McCain is back on the defense. He revealed last week that he didn’t know how many homes he and his wife owned, which prompted a barrage of criticism, including an ad from Barack Obama and this video, to name a couple.

Now, McCain has come up with a two-tiered defense that makes absolutely no sense. The first part is that he knows what it’s like to not have his own house, thanks to his POW experience. Seriously, he said that.

The second part tries to shift the heat back to Obama, which comes as no surprise given the “honorable campaign” McCain is running. It goes like this: By criticizing the number of houses McCain owns, Obama is throwing the whole “American Dream” into question. John McCain should be able to own as many houses as he wants, and Obama is saying he should not have that freedom, according to the McCain camp.

When McCain and the media started trumpeting this response, I didn’t think it warranted speaking out against, because it so obviously did not make sense. But after seeing how Jay Leno’s audience reacted (with roaring applause) to McCain’s defense last night, I can see that I was mistaken.

So here is why it is important that McCain has so many homes:

First, McCain has been talking for a long time about how good the economy is—something McCain and only a few others (rich people) seem to believe. His number-of-homes gaffe sheds new light on comments like these. Of course he would think the economy is in great shape when he is doing so well economically.

Second (and this is the most important part), McCain has been working hard to paint himself as the working-class, blue collar everyman; while at the same time calling Obama an out-of-touch celebrity, a latte-sipping elitist who doesn’t have to worry about budgeting for his family. It is laughably hypocritical for McCain to say these kinds of things while he has more homes than he can count.

Contrary to McCain’s defense, Obama never said that McCain didn’t have the right to these homes, or that he shouldn’t own as many homes as he wants. Of course he should be allowed to buy whatever he wants. McCain’s critics are simply saying that he is a hypocrite and that his rosy assessment of the economy is distorted by his own economic standing.

Let’s be clear. John McCain and Barack Obama are both millionaires (although the McCains are worth much more). But Obama is not the one who is accusing McCain of  being an elitist. It should also be noted that Obama worked hard for what he has, while McCain simply married into his fortune.

So, McCain is either off his rocker or lying to the American public on this one. I think it is probably the latter. McCain is as familiar with this debate as anyone—he knows what Obama meant by his criticism. He knows Obama was right, which is why he had to craft such a disingenuous response. You also know it’s serious when McCain has to say, “Pay no attention to all those houses of mine, I was a POW!”