"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."So, does that mean McCain is an out-of-touch, senile, aristocratic pol unfit for the presidency? That's been the general response from the lefty sphere today. But there are some deficiencies in their assumptions. First, look no further than the next graph in the Politico story:
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.
Actually, I believe that means the "correct answer" is that Politico and Newsweek don't know how many homes the McCains own either. Where McCain appeared confused was whether a merged pair of condos he and his wife own count as one or two properties. Matthew Yglesias has been mocking McCain over the story, but his own findings actually add credibility to the point that determining the number of properties McCain "owns" may in fact be a complicated answer. AMERICAblog's John Aravosis also piles on, accusing McCain of being "cognitively impaired" with "an inconsistent mental state," saying it's "just scary" that he couldn't answer the question off the top of his head.
Well, Mr. Aravosis, what then do you make of this Las Vegas Review-Journal story about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in which he confuses Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman. In addition, reporter Molly Ball writes:
During the hourlong colloquy, Reid also forgot the name of former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a Democratic Senate candidate, and the Title IX legislation giving women access to school sports programs.
By Aravosis' own standards, shouldn't that qualify Democrat Harry Reid as being "cognitively impaired" and unfit to lead the U.S. Senate?
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Comments
"...to the point that determining the number of properties McCain "owns" may in fact be a complicated answer."
Give me a break.
One part of the story is that it's simply ridiculous to us normal folk that he doesn't know how many houses he owns. The other part of the story is that McCain has been recently cited as saying the economy is in decent shape. If you have so many houses that the answer to the question "how many homes do you own?" is "complicated", you don't know what its like to live in American today.
The "complicated" questions to answer for the normal people of America are "how do I prevent foreclosure on the only house I have?" or "how do I afford healthcare for my children while caring for a parent with Alzheimer's Disease" or "how can I afford milk, bread, meat and cereal when I have to pay for mass transit because gas prices are too high?" or "how do make sure my brother comes home from Iraq alive and in one piece?". Those require "complicated" answers.
McCain doesn't know how many homes he owns. The fact that people try and justify McCain's disconnect with America is absurd.
Posted by: jimsepa
| August 22, 2008 11:00 AM
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