[Illustration by ALEX FINE]
PHILADELPHIA — This morning, Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change launched a statewide search to find Pennsylvanians who, like John McCain, have so many homes that they just can’t keep track of the number. Our new media team will be at Love Park in Philadelphia beginning at 1:00 PM and volunteers and field staff will be calling voters throughout the day in an attempt to uncover even just one person who doesn’t know how many homes he or she owns. Yesterday, McCain was asked how many homes he owns. Clearly uncertain, he responded, “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” he told reporters in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.” [Politico.com, 8/21/08]
Here is a partial list of McCain’s homes:
1. Condo in Phoenix, $4.7 million
2. Condo No. 1, Coronado, Calif., $2.7 million
3. Condo No. 2, Coronado, Calif., $2.1 million
4. Hidden Valley Ranch, Sedona, Ariz., $1.8 million [AP, 4/3/08]
5. Condo in La Jolla, Calif., $1 million
6. Condo in Arlington, Va., $847,000
7. Meghan McCain’s Loft in Phoenix, $700,000
This comes just days after McCain defined “rich” as $5 million, insinuating that if you make less than $5 million you must be middle class.
“John McCain exposed just how out-of-touch he is with the experience of average Pennsylvanians. There are a lot of people in Pennsylvania who have lost or are in danger of losing their only home. Unlike John McCain, they don’t have the luxury of forgetting how many homes they have,” said Craig Schirmer, Pennsylvania State Director for the Obama campaign. “Coming from someone whose economic adviser believes America is just a ‘nation of whiners,’ it really makes you wonder whether John McCain has any understanding of the challenges regular folks are facing when he owns so many homes that he can’t even remember how many.”
The campaign will spend the day surveying Pennsylvanians by phone to ask this question:
“Yesterday, John McCain couldn’t remember how many homes he owns because he has so many. The Obama campaign is trying to find Pennsylvanians who, like McCain, have lost track of the number of homes they own. Do you know how many homes you own?”