Poor McCain: He Has So Many Houses....

For most Americans, it's not hard to remember how many homes we rent or own (my wife and I rent one apartment). Now I know a small handful of very talented people who own more than one home and who seem able to remember how many they have. As many know, hero John McCain hit the jackpot after leaving his first wife for a beer heiress now worth $100 million. Okay, maybe it doesn't take much talent to be a beer heiress but then it doesn't much talent to know how many homes are in the family. Politico has the story:

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."

Now was McCain talking about his political staff or his housing staff? Mr. Average Joe, or so McCain would like people to believe, has a budget for a house staff that is more than five times what the average family makes; here the story from Talking Points Memo:

From 2006 to 2007, the McCain's budget for household staff went up roughly 50% from $184,000 to $273,000 ...

Yes, Mr. Average Joe likes to remind people that these are Cindy's homes, not his. That she was filthy rich when he married her seems not to have been noticed by the then future senator. Like the current president, John McCain has a habit of forgetting inconvenient facts such as the name of the Czech Republic or the fact that the al Qaida terrorists are Sunnis, not Shiites (it would take hours to list all the inconvenient facts that McCain garbles or ignores; it is, above all, the one place where he most resembles George W. Bush). Like the failed president currently sitting in the White House, McCain is not, I repeat, not, an average Joe. Firedoglake offers a bit of perspective:

The recent news that John Sidney McCain III is so frickin' rich he can't keep track of all of his domiciles is really no news to those of us who have been paying attention. This is a man, mind you, who is the Fortunate Son and Grandson of two admirals, and whose great-great-grandfather was a Mississippi plantation owner with 52 slaves and 2000 acres in the days before the Civil War. (McCain professed not to have known this when it was brought to his attention in 2000, but his cousin, author Elizabeth Spencer, mentions the McCain family's slaves in her family memoir Landscapes of the Heart, a book John McCain had admitted to reading by the time the 2000 campaign had rolled around.)

It was McCain's silver-spoon background and admiral daddy that got him into the prestigious Navy Air Pilot Flight Training program despite graduating 894th in his Annapolis class of 899.

Let's remember that George W. Bush would never have gotten into the champagne division of the national guard if it were not for his daddy as well. Now McCain served his country and his time as a POW made him a hero. After becoming a senator and marrying a wealthy wife, he clearly has come far in the last thirty-five years. But no one should pretend that our country needs a third term of George W. Bush which is exactly what McCain offers. This is not the McCain of 2000; this is the McCain that struck a Faustian bargain with Bush in 2004 and hasn't looked back since.

Karl Rove is still around. His method of protecting his candidate is to put his weaknesses on the other guy. If anyone is paying attention, it's not hard to figure out that McCain is the elitist in the 2008 campaign. Here's a brief description of just one of the McCain homes (via Raw Story):

In Phoenix, the McCains' primary residence is a nearly 7,000 square foot condominium worth about $4.66 million. The McCains purchased two condos in 2006 and knocked down some walls to create the massive space in a high-rise that features valet parking, a rooftop swimming pool, personal spa services and on-staff housekeepers, among other amenities.

That's just one home. Among others, John W. McBush and his wife Cindy also have a 14 acre ranch with several homes in Sedona, a town famous for its retirees. Now there's a thought. Given McCain's famous temper and his desire to go to war with Iran and Russia and whoever else he's mad at that day, the nation would be better off if he retired to the quiet and beautiful red rock country of Arizona rather than submit himself to the pressure cooker of the White House. But McCain is ambitious and, like many prominent Republicans, he nurses resentments. That star he puts in many of his ads begs a question: does he resent that he never made admiral? The reality is that McCain is stuck in the past. He's still fighting Vietnam, he's still fighting the Cold War, he wants to win something in Iraq but can't define what it is. Listen to him very carefully: sometimes he's still fighting World War II. We are facing new challenges in the 21st century; it's time for a new crew in Washington. If this country is to move forward, it's time.