On the topic of overconsumption ...

John McCain doesn’t know how many houses he owns 15

Muckraker: Grist on Politics

GOP presidential candidate John McCain isn't sure how many houses he owns. "I think -- I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico yesterday. "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you."

The correct answer seems to be somewhere between four and seven. The Obama campaign has already released this ad on the subject:

UPDATE: The McCain campaign responds with the arugula defense: "In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type based on his life story," spokesman Brian Rogers told the Post.

Kate Sheppard is Grist’s political reporter.

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  1. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 4:07 am
    21 Aug 2008

    McCain's flack responds

    This is absolutely hilarious.

    McCain only has four houses, not ten! And did we mention he was a POW?

    grist.org

  2. PermieWriter's avatar

    PermieWriter Posted 4:17 am
    21 Aug 2008

    What's up with the GOP arugula-bashing?

    Yeah, it has kind of an intense flavor and it likes to go to seed quickly. And you have to eat it young.

    So why on earth do Republicans hate it? Eating their young is right up their alley.

    Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

  3. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 4:18 am
    21 Aug 2008

    Obama responds

    They are going to town on this.

    grist.org

  4. Sean Casten's avatar

    Sean Casten Posted 4:35 am
    21 Aug 2008

    PermieWriter

    That is a good question, apropos of David's earlier question about why it is manly to like nuclear power but girly to like wind.  

    CW says: Real Americans like nuclear power, budweiser and overcooked burgers.  Sissified elitists like efficiency, wine and a salad of summer greens lightly drizzled with balsamic vinagrette and a medium rare tenderloin with a port wine reduction sauce.

    I get it... but I'm not sure why.  Food snobbery sounds French, after all.  But then again, so does nuclear power.  Thoughts?

  5. Jon Rynn's avatar

    Jon Rynn Posted 4:37 am
    21 Aug 2008

    "Pointy-headed professor type"?!!

    Going back to the John Birch society playbook there?  And will Obama now finally stop saying what a great American John McCain is, blah blah blah?

  6. TheGreenMiles Posted 5:00 am
    21 Aug 2008

    Wha-huh?

    McCain's campaign thinks it's a "personal attack" to point out that he owns somewhere between four and ten houses? Thank goodness Obama didn't mention how many cars and/or boats McCain owns. Then the gloves would be off!

    Join the discussion on global warming, recycling, and organic beer at The Green Miles!

  7. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 6:42 am
    21 Aug 2008

    Anti-intellectualism may appeal to Bubba

    but Bubba don't vote.

    Obama's the man.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

  8. Cacaoatl's avatar

    Cacaoatl Posted 6:54 am
    21 Aug 2008

    How Do You Forget How Much Real Estate You Own?

    McCain has been trying to paint Obama as an elitist but Obama is the one who is more like most Americans. He is middle-class and like an increasing number of Americans, he's mixed race. Unlike McCain he's still married to his first wife.

    McCain is a millionaire who left his first wife for a millionaire heiress. He's so rich that he's forgotten how many homes he owns but somehow Obama's elitist because he is a lawyer who took his family on vacation to Hawaii. The last time I checked, Hawaii is an American state. I didn't know it was elitist to visit another state.

  9. David Roberts's avatar

    David Roberts Posted 8:03 am
    21 Aug 2008

    And more

    grist.org

  10. wiscidea Posted 8:52 am
    21 Aug 2008

    "Pointy-headed professor type"?!!

    This is sooooooooo depressing.

    It is clear that the primary threat to the environment -- and a lot of other stuff I won't go into here -- is ant-intellectualism.

    What can a person do about this?

  11. WWAGD?!'s avatar

    WWAGD?! Posted 10:24 am
    21 Aug 2008

    McCain - Shafted just like real Americans


    Wait -- Obama is cursing McCain for owning housing?

    Who is out of touch!   House prices have been sliding precipitously in case His Highness hasn't been reading the friggin' newspapers for the last 2 years!

    McCain is taking a beating (yeah, he's used to it, thin skins) in the market -- what's more, since he held on to his property, he's actually propping up the market so others can sell.

    Only Odumba would think that someone having multiple houses in 2008 is "raking it in"!?!

  12. justlou Posted 10:50 am
    21 Aug 2008

    McCain -- Just Like "The Rest of Us"

    Republicans will spin this with their classic, trickle down justifications. Owning multiple homes provides construction jobs, service jobs for maintenance and cleanup staff, security jobs, pays local property taxes, grows the economy, etc. While many of us look at this from a vantage point of virtue, ethics, greed, excess, waste of resources and energy, etc. others view it as a badge of success and freedom to pursue the dream of good standing among the country club set.

    McCain, the face of the ruling class, flashing the gold while trashing the "elites".  

  13. WWAGD?!'s avatar

    WWAGD?! Posted 11:26 am
    21 Aug 2008

    McCain's Trash, But His Trailers Real Big

    McCain, the face of the ruling class, flashing the gold while trashing the "elites".  

    Dude.

    McCain is a Navy brat who married a high school cheerleader whose dad owns a beer distributor.

    You can't get any more home town than that.

    He and Cindy probably sit at home in front of a 1973 Sony Color TV with one of the built in rabbit ears broken off watching Jeff Dunham:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D60yjEbQnDg

  14. justlou Posted 8:05 pm
    21 Aug 2008

    Well Home Town Boy

    The country is built on illusions and McCain is depending on it.  

  15. John former Marine Posted 4:41 am
    22 Aug 2008

    5 1/2 years in prison wasn't enough...

    If some hot-shot Navy pilot dropped napalm and bombs on my village and got shot down, I'd have done a lot worse to him than he got.  He's lucky that his father was an admiral in charge of the Pacific fleet.  I'm sure that didn't affect his treatment at all, though.  Why doesn't anybody ever ask Mr. POW why he was flying over another sovereign nation and dropping munitions on them just because they had a different ideology than he did?

    He probably thinks owning 12 houses doesn't make him rich.  Of course, the definition of rich being "earning over $5 million a year."

    Il faut cultiver notre jardin.

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