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Forums - General - McCain is facing a grave problem

Galaki on 22 August 2008

He does not know how many houses he owns.

source politico

McCain unsure how many houses he owns

By JONATHAN MARTIN & MIKE ALLEN | 8/21/08 5:13 PM EST Updated: 8/21/08 5:13 PM EST

Asked how many houses he owned, John McCain replied, "I think — I'll have my staff get to you."
Photo: AP

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 Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

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The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

And a Politico analysis later in the day found McCain's family owns at least eight properties, according to  property and tax records, as well as interviews.

 

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.

Pro-Obama labor groups have sent out mailers highlighting McCain’s wealth, and prominent Democrats have included references to it in comments to reporters.

Twice in the past two weeks, those Democrats have focused on McCain’s houses.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told Politico’s Ben Smith that it was McCain “who wears $500 shoes, has six houses and comes from one of the richest families in his state."

And David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, referred in an interview with Adam Nagourney of The New York Times to an imagined meeting of McCain strategists “on the portico of the McCain estate in Sedona — or maybe in one of his six other houses.”

The Obama campaign seized on the house issue Thursday with an ad called "Seven," claiming that's the number of houses McCain has. The ad closes with a shot of the White House and the narration: "Here's ONE house American can't afford to let John McCain move into."

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in response: "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? 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?

“The reality is that Barack Obama’s plans to raise taxes and opposition to producing more energy here at home as gas prices skyrocket show he’s completely out of touch with the concerns of average Americans.” 

At a campaign appearance in Chester, Va., on Thursday morning, Obama said: "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." 

McCain’s comments came four days after he initially told Pastor Rick Warren during a faith forum on Sunday his threshold for considering someone rich is $5 million — a careless comment he quickly corrected.

In the interview, McCain did not offer an alternate number, but had a new answer ready.
“I define rich in other ways besides income,” he said. “Some people are wealthy and rich in their lives and their children and their ability to educate them. Others are poor if they’re billionaires.”

McCain, by anyone's measure, is well-off, if you account for his wife's fortune. Cindy McCain inherited control of her father’s beer distributorship, the largest in Arizona, and has an estimated worth of more than $100 million.



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akuma587 on 22 August 2008

Ohhh noes, but I thought Obama was supposed to be the elitist?



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

Kasz216 on 22 August 2008

It just goes to show that his Wife totally runs the marriage.

Which is only fair. She is the rich one.



Galaki on 22 August 2008
Kasz216 said:
It just goes to show that his Wife totally runs the marriage.

Which is only fair. She is the rich one.

 

Are you saying, his entire staff is his wife?



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Kasz216 on 22 August 2008
Galaki said:
Kasz216 said:
It just goes to show that his Wife totally runs the marriage.

Which is only fair. She is the rich one.

 

Are you saying, his entire staff is his wife?

No, i think "Asking his staff" sounds better then "I'll have to ask my wife." or "My wife handles those things."

A lot of people would probably wonder about him being head executive officer of the country when he isn't even the head executive officer of his marriage.

There is also the question of how many of those houses he actually lives/spends time in and how many are simply invesment properties.

A lot of it is just stuff his wife controls via various trusts and LLCs.

http://progressiveaccountability.org/2008/08/21/media-fact-check-mccains-houses/

It's really no surprise he doesn't know how many houses he "owns" when you look at it.



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Sqrl on 22 August 2008

I was expecting the title to turn into a play on words...you know..McCain facing a "Grave Problem"...bah whatever .....

I don't think this is any bigger a problem than candidates face every week on the campaign trail. ALL politicians are out of touch with the average American (and yes to those who think Obama doesn't count..he does) and most folks get that.

This will sway some voters here and there (like pretty much anything else) but its not going to turn into a major issue that plagues the campaign or turns the tide one way or the other.

Thats my $0.02
To Each Man, Responsibility
akuma587 on 22 August 2008
Sqrl said:
I was expecting the title to turn into a play on words...you know..McCain facing a "Grave Problem"...bah whatever .....

I don't think this is any bigger a problem than candidates face every week on the campaign trail. ALL politicians are out of touch with the average American (and yes to those who think Obama doesn't count..he does) and most folks get that.

This will sway some voters here and there (like pretty much anything else) but its not going to turn into a major issue that plagues the campaign or turns the tide one way or the other.

Thats my $0.02

 

Well, Obama was at least poor for a healthy percentage of his life, which is better than McCain has to say.  But I agree that pretty much any politician is out of touch.



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

Sqrl on 22 August 2008
akuma587 said:
Sqrl said:
I was expecting the title to turn into a play on words...you know..McCain facing a "Grave Problem"...bah whatever .....

I don't think this is any bigger a problem than candidates face every week on the campaign trail. ALL politicians are out of touch with the average American (and yes to those who think Obama doesn't count..he does) and most folks get that.

This will sway some voters here and there (like pretty much anything else) but its not going to turn into a major issue that plagues the campaign or turns the tide one way or the other.

Thats my $0.02

 

Well, Obama was at least poor for a healthy percentage of his life, which is better than McCain has to say.  But I agree that pretty much any politician is out of touch.

 

Uhm, I don't really think its a battle for who was the most impoverished for the longest.  The point is that right here and now they are both wealthy, they both have entourages, they both have body guards, they both have political power, and they both have a massive following of media watching their every move. 

They simply do not lead anywhere near the day to day life that the average American does and in that situation so far removed from normalcy you cannot help but be out of touch 

 
To Each Man, Responsibility
akuma587 on 22 August 2008
Sqrl said:
akuma587 said:
Sqrl said:
I was expecting the title to turn into a play on words...you know..McCain facing a "Grave Problem"...bah whatever .....

I don't think this is any bigger a problem than candidates face every week on the campaign trail. ALL politicians are out of touch with the average American (and yes to those who think Obama doesn't count..he does) and most folks get that.

This will sway some voters here and there (like pretty much anything else) but its not going to turn into a major issue that plagues the campaign or turns the tide one way or the other.

Thats my $0.02

 

Well, Obama was at least poor for a healthy percentage of his life, which is better than McCain has to say.  But I agree that pretty much any politician is out of touch.

 

Uhm, I don't really think its a battle for who was the most impoverished for the longest.  The point is that right here and now they are both wealthy, they both have entourages, they both have body guards, they both have political power, and they both have a massive following of media watching their every move. 

They simply do not lead anywhere near the day to day life that the average American does and in that situation so far removed from normalcy you cannot help but be out of touch 

 

Well, I don't know about you, but I think most people can relate to a self-starter (Obama) more than someone who never had to worry about money for the majority of his life (McCain).  Just because every politician is out of touch doesn't mean that some aren't MORE out of touch.

 



We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.  The only thing that really worried me was the ether.  There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke

It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...."  Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson

Sqrl on 22 August 2008
akuma587 said:
Sqrl said:

 

Uhm, I don't really think its a battle for who was the most impoverished for the longest.  The point is that right here and now they are both wealthy, they both have entourages, they both have body guards, they both have political power, and they both have a massive following of media watching their every move. 

They simply do not lead anywhere near the day to day life that the average American does and in that situation so far removed from normalcy you cannot help but be out of touch 

 

Well, I don't know about you, but I think most people can relate to a self-starter (Obama) more than someone who never had to worry about money for the majority of his life (McCain).  Just because every politician is out of touch doesn't mean that some aren't MORE out of touch.

 

 

As far as I know they both married into money so I'm not sure what you mean. 

McCain had his family connections in the Navy sure, but they weren't exactly rolling in the cash from what I've seen.  In fact Cindy had to bring something like 150k out of her trust fund to fund McCain's first congressional run.  Without that he likely would have never been a name any of us were talking about.
To Each Man, Responsibility