Yup, they smell blood.

McCain gift-wrapped this one for them with his "how many houses?" gaffe. The timing could not have been better for the Obama campaign.

This is what will win the election. Not "hope," not "Abramoff knows someone who raised money for McCain.

Yeah. "If you think making 5 million dollars makes you rich and own at least 4 homes, no wonder you think the economy's going strong."

Yes, the Bob Shrum, "hey, they are the party of the rich" strategy has worked so well in previous elections.

Will the Democrats learn that people don't hate rich people? Kerry was fabulously wealthy--the Bushes are very wealthy and priveleged.

Bush managed, in a ridiculously phoney baloney way, to seem like a regular-Texan-rich-guy.

I will be surprised if McCain somehow manages to seem more "elitist" as a result of the "revelation" that he is rich. This whole line of attack strikes me as an unseemly return of the failed class warfare of Bob Shrum (see Al Gore, John Kerry...).

I think the revelation is not that he's rich, but that he's out of touch. Someone who can't remember how many houses he owns may strike people as "not like you and me."

Klk is right. Remember how Bush 41 got in trouble for being amazed at the technology they had in grocery checkout lines?

It sounded good to me, but I'm hardly someone Obama needs to win over.

I do think, however, that instead of saying things like "McCain thinks you need to be making 5 million dollars a year in order to be rich", Obama should be saying "McCain thinks that if you're making 1, 2, even , 4 million dollars a year, you're middle class."

Class-envy is not the best tact to take, generally, but a targeted campaign based directly on McCain's current house gaffe--I think it makes an effective campaign. And when you tie that wealth to the current economy, it can be strong--it just has to be done successfully.


In context, John McCain's 5 million dollar comment isn't that damning, and McCain could make an argument that harping on that is either willful obtuseness on the part of the Obama campaign, or general dimness. Much better to whack on forgetting how many houses you have--that's bad, in so many ways, but more than that, if the McCain campaign is forced into tortured explanations of how many houses he has and how he could forget how many houses he owns . . . that's a winner of a negative attack ad. Out of touch, rather than "ooh, he's rich, and rich is bad" is a much better strategy.

I don't blame him, or begrudge him, owning a dozen different properties. I'd love to have that kind of wealth, myself. I'd hope that if I ever did have that much money, I'd at least be able to keep track of how many houses I actually had.

The key is not the wealth per se. It's the connection wealth gained through marriage, the ignorance of his own family's wealth, and the ignorance of the economy.

If McCain had made his money through business and knew his assets like most rich people do, there would be no issue. It would be simple "class warfare" to go after him.

But this is very different.

I could not agree more. It's not so much he has 8 houses. It's that he can't remember he has eight houses. I can remember that I only have 1 car, 1 laptop, 38 dollars in my acccount- who can't remember how many damn houses they own. It's like oh I can't remember how many planes I own, or countries- my gosh. People are suffering through the worst economic crisis rising foreclosures- and a presidential candidate can't remember how many houses they own- check with his staff. This to my is also a double whammy- highlight the word "can't remember"- someones talking code for age. gift send from God himself. The problem with the McCain camp is that they set out on this path- with their celebrity taunts- yeah Obama might be a celeb, but he's a poor one. At least Jay leno can remember how many houses he owns.

I'm not "envious" of McCain for having six more homes or 50 times the annual income of me. I am concerned that he listens to someone who calls me a "whiner" and says people like me need an attitude adjustment because "we are the problem with the economy." I voted for John Kerry despite his Teresa Heinz wealth. Believe me, this isn't about Bob Schrum class warfare...its about how out of touch John and Cindy are with what 100,000's of Americans are going through. Besides, if a guy cannot remember how many homes he owns...??? Does he remember what he ate for breakfast?

I'd phrase it this way, "John McCain said that you had to be making $5 million a year to be rich. I guess that means he thinks that those folks in the middle class are making 3 or 4 million dollars a year, which shows how out-of-touch he is with the economy. No wonder John McCain agreed with George W. Bush that our economy is fundamentally sound. Senator McCain really doesn't know much about the economy, just like he admitted on a couple occasions.

But the fact is that we're not doing that good. And while John McCain struggles to remember how many homes he has---7, Senator McCain, you have at least 7 homes---regular folks in this country are just trying to figure out how to make mortgage payments on one home. We need to pull together and solve this, but John McCain's campaign simply insults those in trouble, called us all "whiners" who are simply in a "mental recession." That isn't right, and it sure won't help us solve the very real economic problems in this country."

Ok, that was a lot longer than I intended.

McCain stands to gain millions with his own tax breaks, and make them permanent. Obama stands to loose on his income with his tax increase but i guess he is only 2 year removed from those he is giving tax breaks.

I love Obama's speaking about his opponents. It's like you're sitting in on a good-natured bitch session.

I was also struck when I heard this on CNN today. In other words, I also thought it was striking. Thanks for the confirm.

Can we all make a pack to ignore the people who say don't use class arguments? Look, this ISN'T 2004 or 2000. It's 2008. We are in the middle of one of the worse economic crisis well since Clinton 1992 run against Bush. Use the argument over class. Use it often. use it well. But use it.

It's not class warfare. It's the doofus factor.

This isn't Bob Shrum. This isn't about resenting rich people. This is about a major party nominee for president who says the economy is fundamentally strong when it isn't, just because he owns so many houses he's lost count and has more than a $270,000 payroll for freakin' SERVANTS.

This is definitely the right issue at the right time.

It makes McCain look like what he is: a dandy supported by a fabulously wealthy woman. His campaign doesn't have to pay for his jet because she owns it.

Now, somehow, we need to turn around the narrative of "substance" that seems to nonsensically focus negatively on Obama. McCain's foreign policy is naive at best, and his economic policy is a vague mish-mash of conservative talking points.

I resisted the comparison between McCain and Bush at first, but now I'm convinced that they're doppelgangers.

Remember when they branded Bush as a "uniting" maverick Republican who reaches across party lines? How'd that work out for us?

Isn't it funny how the arguments against class warfare only go one way? It's only class warfare if poor people are trying to take down rich people. But when Phil Gramn says we're a nation of whiners, that's class warfare. He means the poor and middle class. He's not talking about the rich.

And when Bush puts in place regressive tax policies that redistribute wealth upwards, that's class warfare. But for some reason no one is able to recognize it as such and call it for what it is.

I think what we need to acknowledge is that class warfare has been waged by the rich (with the help of the Republican party...starting with St. Ronnie) against the poor and middle class for decades.

And it's time we fought back.