McCain not sure how many houses he owns

File this under "Problems most of us will never have" -- You are running for president. Someone asks you how many houses you own. You can't remember. Is it four? Six? Seven?

From Politico.com: "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.' "

More: "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."

Democrats are using the "he owns a bunch of houses" line to remind Americans that McCain, by marriage, is fabulously wealthy. More from Politico: "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.' "

--Peter Viles
Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com

Comments

[justin]

Hummm. Do you think it's possible he can't remember how many homes he owns because, like many Americans, some or all of them are in foreclosure????

[Darrell Burks]

It is pretty sad candidate who avoids talking about his wealth. Vote Obama - at true candidate

[The original RZ]

Hopefully he won't pull a Laura Richardson and foreclose on the number of houses he might own.

[bpa]

Who cares what he owns. What I care about is what I own and how much the government intends to expropriate from me. It is awful, and... I own one home and have bills. Family income under 75K; of which, Social Security get 7%, property taxes 10%, state income tax 2%, local income tax 1%, sales tax 7%, fed income tax 19%. Let's see that is about 46% tax.

And, there are people who think we are under taxed, let them pony up their funds, I'f rather not. Less taxes = more capital to run our economy.

[Mark Pasternak]

He was just trying to appeal to the religious base by quoting from the King James Bible "In my Father's house are many mansions..."

[MattP]

.... and why is this important?

When I was a boy my parents owned rental properties. My friends used to think we were "rich" because we owned so many houses. We weren't, and my parents would have had to think before answering this same question.
Why is it a liability to be successful?
Obama is in no position to hit McCain about homes (felon, Rezko, political favors).

[Stephen]

Wow, he is so in touch with the normal hard working American who has to decide between vacations and filling up their gas tank. Or worse yet the low income family needs to decide between eating food or driving to work! Yes this man can be president for the wealthy only and thats it.

[john]

McCain's campaign staff count 4 houses across the country, but Newsweek and the Washington Post counts 7. Which is it John McCain?

-- Boy, McCain's maverick "straight talk" is just so refreshing, err, well entertaining anyway.

[theo]

if mccain says obama is like movie stars, obama has every right (and factual at that) to counter that mccain is an ol' rich fart who has no idea what most americans go through.

his economic plans and numbers don't add up, he can't remember the number of houses he has, and he wants to double-down on w's tax cuts while having no way to pay down the 9 trillion debt in 10 years that would incur.

enough fear already.

[RichW]

I don't get what the big deal is. Laura Richardson has (had?) three houses and apparently forgot about them when it came time to make her mortgage payments.

[Laker]

who cares how many houses does he (or his wife) own?
the more money he has, the less he will suck or be sucked by the interest groups.

Like gov. terminator that is so rich that he does not take a paycheck from CA. He is working for free....

What about Al Gore's Mega Mansion? What about the Clinton's hundreds of millions in proceeds. How about Obama getting preferable loans from countrywide?
I rather have a rich president than a "poor" Laura Richardson sucking money from every interest group so she could drive a $2000 a month leased car and own 5 houses that half are in default/foreclosure.

[Armand in Spain]

By your crazy McCain's own estimates, Mr. Obama's not even "rich". 5 millions says he... is this the norm in your country? One would think that in tight times this would be frowned upon. Perhaps the collapsing American economy is just a myth.

Here in Spain we are having a housing crunch as well, and the real estate markets are not doing so well. One would think with the crisis in America, a devalued dollar (we've heard many complaints from the American tourists) and a sinking economy McCain might want to be more careful with his claims. Or is he that out of touch?

[manraygun]

The fact that a politician is rich doesn't matter that much. But a politician that is rich AND CLUELESS as to the way the rest of us live IS a problem. It's McCain's and Co's other comments -- definition of rich is over 5 million per year, americans are whiners, the recession is mental -- that reveal the selfishness and greed that motivates the republican philosophy. If you make 40K a year and vote for this crooked old goat, you'll get the America you deserve.

[Steve]

Is McCain out of touch with the average American? Not sure. If I don't know many people who's income is $5 million/year and don't know how many houses he/she owns.

If you're making less than $250,000 and don't want to pay more taxes, you should vote for Obama.

This is from Chicago Sun Times:

"Obama says he would hike several taxes on people making more than $250,000, including the amount they pay on capital gains. Currently, the top income tax rate is 35 percent. Under Obama, that would go back up to 39 percent. Obama's staff told the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center he would raise the rates for people in the top two brackets -- about 2.5 million filers out of 100 million-plus. People in those high tax brackets would see the tax rate on their capital gains hiked from the current 15 percent to 20-28 percent."

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/
1031268,CST-NWS-tax30.article

[Posh Spice]

"The man spends his life in Washington and comes home on weekends I doubt he is going house hunting. I say his wife finds a place, likes it, buys it with her money and invites him over. "

Actually, the man misses more votes on the Senate floor than any other member of Congress. Also, for those thinking these are investment properties, that John McCain has no say in these matters, or that he is military, so he must buy and sell houses often and thus is confused... well, that toilet don't flush.

Stick to the facts, not the subterfuge. McCain has been out of the military for decades, is a glad-handing beltway insider that has changed positions on his OWN BILLS (read: filp-flopped). He was involved in the Keating 5 and has close associations with Jack Abramoff. These scandals make the Obama friendship with Rezko, which hasn't even warranted accusations of wrong doing (sorry Rove acolytes), look like a night at the little league ball game. Without a fight between the parents from rival teams!

Sorry, Neo-convicts, but your candidate stinks!

[Charlotte Laws]

You say that remembering how many properties a person has is “not a problem most of us will ever have.” Really? Well, I have four houses (three are rentals), but when asked, I frequently can’t remember at first and have to start counting up in my head. Uh... I just forgot, I have some desert land which is worth virtually nothing. So make that five properties.

I am most certainly middle income, although many would call me lower income. I have never made more than $120,000 per year and for the past couple of years, I made $3000 and $20,000 respectively. I don’t get income from my rentals; they are break even situations. Plus I don’t have a spouse who handles properties as McCain does. I do it all myself. Would you call me wealthy?

It is pathetic that Democrats have to resort to another losing argument to try to attack Senator McCain. Maybe McCain is simply not a guy who cares about money. Maybe he thinks there are more important things in life, as do I.

[tarbubble]

i recall Kerry getting a lot of heat for being married to a rich heiress. Kerry got heat for being a Vietnam vet! this crap goes both ways - i'll be voting for Obama, but I did get a little irked by the Obamas' attempt at showing their empathy with the common man by talking about how much piano lessons and whatnot costs - they're not uber-rich, but they ain't middle class anymore. But ripping McCain because he faltered in answering an off-the-cuff question about something unrelated to his positions on the issues is a cheap shot.

[David]

Obama should better not change the spotlight to houses...

Unlike Obama, McCain did not buy his house 30% off the listed price, with the help of a criminal type who, while being deep in debt, bought the adjacent lot at the full asking price....

[Joe Shmoe]

This is only an issue because it is McCain who has made such an issue of Obama's alleged elitism and out of touch mindset.

Most Americans who have bought houses in the last four years are underwater, and a huge chunk of them are facing resets in their mortgage payments. They sure as hell know how many houses they (partially) own.

McCain is getting a taste of his own medicine.

[Diane]

At least he knows he owns houses. At the debate In 2000, GB exhibited that he didn't know that he owned a logging company

[James]

McCain is a trust fund baby.

Don't forget this line from Bush while addressing his his real base, millionaires: "Some call you the elite, I call you my base."

McBush.

[patrick]

I am not advocating for John McCain. The history of the American presidency has been littered, nay, bloated, with a litany of men who were either a) self-made wealthy, or b) silver spoon-fed wealthy. While George Washington falls into the former (he was born well-off but he acchieved super-rich status by marrying the wealthiest widow in Virginia), the majority of wealthy presidents (Jefferson, Grant, both Roosevelts, Kennedy, both Bushes) came from old money. Do we look back and say 'i can't believe we entrusted the nation's future to that spoilt rich man'? Not often. On that note, do you expect a pauper to be able to afford running a national campaign? When even the wealthiest men need to raise money, you can get some idea of how expensive such a campaign can become. I'd be interested to know if Washington could say how much land he owned, or if JFK could tick off the number of second homes he kept. Conclusion: since the founding of our Republic, the men charged with leading it have been, by and large, wealthy and well-connected. To expect otherwise is pie-in-the-sky idealism that simply will not bear scrutiny. By the way, the Obamas made an estimated $14 million last year, while the average two-person household earned around $50k. Don't go yelling about backing the dark horse when he's not that dark in reality (no racial context implied).

[angry]

What's wrong with that? Most Americans own more than one house. I own fourteen.

[Jackie Romulo]

Whoops, McCain's age is beginning to show through. I wonder if he'll remember what position he's running for at the next interview.

[Robt]

It's nice to know Noscama knows exactly how many houses he has...... The one he got by way of the sweetheart mortgage deal with the convicted felon, slum lord turned low life thug Rezko. BTW, he gets sentenced soon. I wonder if Noscama will visit him while he is in prison or will do his usual act and toss him under the bus. Some much for "change" and integrity. You Democrats must be very proud. Any word on the latest position Noscama has changed today?