From your FactCheck.org link referring to the state of the economy pre-Jan '08, McCain claimed "there's been great progress economically" under Bush and "we have had a pretty good prosperous time". Which just goes to show how out of touch he is with average Americans since he's probably referring to growth in GDP, productivity and returns on capital investment. None of which put food on the table or cover the ever rising costs of healthcare or a college education in the stagnant wage economy that has evolved under GW's stewardship.

Even without the mortgage led financial crisis and the stratospheric rise in crude based energy prices the economic outlook for the majority of Americans has been in steady decline since Bush took office. Cost's to average families of everyday essentials have risen while wages have remained largely stagnant and the income gap between rich and poor has widened dramatically heralding a new gilded age.

Hurts don't it? And there's one thing you can't debunk. The Dude doesn't know how many houses Cindy bought him. That's accurate and it's truthful and it's got them both furious and on the defensive.

Which is pretty much where you want them. Sorry you're disappointed.

Tho' the truth is closer to "I'm not ashamed of my wife's inherited fortune" -- which doesn't play quite as well.

ABC News and Charles Gibson led with a story about John McCain's houses, complete with Senior Senator audio. And nice excerpts from Obama's attack line.

Then details re all nine properties. Then comment re making him seem out of touch. Then more from Obama saying basically that. Then, and this just keeps getting better, a clip from the Obama ad on the subject.

Oh. And then a five second rebuttal from the McCain campaign that mentions the Rezko connection. Who?

And then, just to button the report, Jake Tapper talking about how the little things can sometimes become seminal moments in campaigns, like John Kerry talking about voting for something before he voted against it.

Solid gold.

Honest question, because the two issues are unrelated beyond the word "house."

Obama already took his lumps on Rezko. There's no there there beyond his admittedly poor judgment in having anything to do with him.

The attack on McCain isn't a guilt-by-association drive by. It's a critique of his entire economic plan, served with a quote conveniently provided by the candidate himself. McCain's economic plan is tax cuts for the wealthy. McCain's former economic adviser described complaints about the economy as "whining" and said we were in a "mental recession." McCain said his definition of rich starts at $5 million, and he doesn't even know how many houses he has. Tie it together, and you have an issue-based attack: McCain is out of touch and his plan won't help ordinary Americans.

The parallel attack using Rezko on Obama has nothing to do with houses -- it would be centered on Obama's efforts at ethics reform and would attempt to demonstrate that Obama is personally corrupt even while he cloaks himself in the mantle of a reformer. It falls flat because Obama *isn't* personally corrupt anymore than any politician, but that would be a better analogy.

But this has nothing to do with houses. That the McCain campaign would seek to invoke Rezko in a discussion about the economy illustrates either that they are reeling, with no real message control or coherent strategy, or else that they've decided to embrace the politics of personal destruction that McCain supposedly disavowed.

In the day, Harley would often comment that talking points don't make an arguement.

An entire news cycle dedicated to the prospect that the Senior Senator is so rich he doesn't know how many homes he owns. Because he said so. Yesterday.

Yep. Why on earth would anyone want to talk about that?

in this campaign - oh, wait, that was back in June. Sorry.

Calling the Dem nomination debates "steel cage death matches" is Ludacris; the only posterior I saw get roasted back then was Her Nibs' capacious one, and that was by Russert over the the NY drivers' licenses for illegals deal that (Fmr.)Gov Spitzer had floated. Refresh my memory with some of the tough questions and grillings Obama faced back then, please.

The debate over capitalism vs. communism whetted my appetite for taking money from people who have way more than they need, so I propose a bet between you and me over who folds first in the Obama/McCain debates. All we need to do is agree on a nifty but not too spendy prize and some objective criterion for deciding the winner. Too much talking - time to ante up. OK?

If so then Dr. would appropriate.

who as far as I've worked out on paper hasn't made a goddamn dime under his own steam. Some Connecticut Yankee with his Skull and Bones pin, he's no different than Kerry or Gore. That idiotic cowboy hat and fake Tex-ass accent makes me think of that ridiculous Dukakis riding around in a tank. So did that flight suit episode, after his Mysterious Absence from the Texas Air National Guard.

I won't go into the patent illegality of his Texas Rangers deal, that entire deal would make a buzzard puke. Or his buddy-buddy with Ken Lay.

But the glorification, nay beatification of St John McCain really does amuse me. I am put in mind of Daumier's Martyrdom of St Simeon , all that maudlin crap. If we have to get down to gaps between image and substance, McCain's whole life has been one narrow escape from disaster after another. He's the Peter Rabbit of politics, leaving his coat behind in Mr. MacGregor's garden.

pot, kettle, etc.

It's not our fault McCain said something, actually more than one, that was amazingly stupid. And believe it or not, it's not John Kerry's fault either.

Five million threshold for rich. Doesn't know how many homes he has. Put that together?

Heh. Watch for yourself.

he really said "arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type"?

Because lord knows we don't want anyone smart enough to be a professor as President. Smart people are elitist!

Though "pointy-head"..what does that even mean..besides planting an old Harry Nilsson song in my head.

Which in turn reminds me of Spiro Agnew's "effete corps of impudent snobs"...ah, good times.

Is the Onion running McCain's campaign?

"a noun, a verb, P.O.W."

McCain is a POW?

I had no idea. Do you have a cite? You'd think they'd play something like that up a lot more.

Wait... which war?

...who will help out this guy. All you have to do is pay the Western Union transfer fee.

Heh. Does Glenn have a fan club?

As for what the diary is actually about -- as opposed to 'Whatever you Can Do I Can Do Better Cuz Obama Isn't a Real American' -- I think puncturing McCain's bloated self-regard is a good strategic move. Forget Bush Sr. and the checkout counter. This is a guy who doesn't know how many homes he owns. This is a guy who, when queried about what makes one rich, came out with a five million dollar figure.

You know where it goes from there. That's why Obama was poking fun at the Very Senior Senator this morning, and using those examples while doing so. We need more of this, if only to counter the media-fed criticism-proof Hero Vest Senator McCain and his surrogates wear so proudly.

And that's before we get to his temper problems, something the Obama campaign started addressing yesterday. (He's trigger happy!)

So to sum up. An out-of-touch hot-head who is more adept at fashioning fake religious tales than economic proposals.

I like this narrative. Let's see if it flies.

Its not that McCain owns seven houses. Hey, marry a beer heiress and stuff like that happens.

Nope, the issue is that John McCain also says that the "Economy is doing fine"

Watch and learn:

Hank ruined Hailie Selassie, and given that Passy is where you find the Richie Richards of Paris? I dunno. I sorta like it.

When you have to ask your staff how many houses you own.

That isn't class warfare...that's just plain embarrassing.

unaware, and unqualified to help Americans solve problems is the message they're going for. The houses and the wealth are proxies for GHWB's grocery-store scanner.

Bill Clinton was able to attack "the rich" very successfully. His success was that he had an authentically good ol' boy persona that enabled him to pull it off. It's tough for Obama because culturally, he doesn't pull off working class very well. Yes, he had some tough moments in his childhood, but he went to freakin' Punahou, which is about as culturally white and (upper-) middle class as you can get and still stay in Hawai'i.

Now, he could have crafted some narrative about how his mom scrimped and saved and pulled out all the stops to make sure that he got ahead in spite of a tough background, but by this point, he's too firmly defined with the upper-middle class white urbanites.

Even then, hammering on "the rich" during a recession isn't really a loser, as long as it's done with finesse. So I suspect that he might manage it yet.

I test the water all the time on class issues.

The situations I've encountered where it would be OK to say even something like 'The rich keep getting richer' are few and far between.

I would think the fabrication cross + Mother theresa would be a better line to pursue.