--> Remember yesterday when Obama argued that McCain is out of touch with the economic concerns of average Americans? Well, the elder senator from Arizona decided to prove it. While being interviewed by the fantastic Jonathan Martin and Mike Allen of Politico, McCain was asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. His response:
"I think — I'll have my staff get to you."
That's right - John McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns. But Obama is the elitist one, because he happens to like arugula? For the millions of Americans who don't know if they will be able to afford living in a house within the next year, this might seem a bit elitist.
This story also gave Team Obama the perfect opportunity their new take-no-prisoners (perhaps a bad phrase to use with former POW McCain...more on this later) attitude. They immediately cut and released an ad attacking McCain for being out-of-touch on economic issues (also for owning an odd number of houses).
Obama went a step further, and sent governors, senators, and any other surrogates he could get his hands on into battle in 16 key swing states. Their mission is to hammer McCain for this remark as much as possible, in an attempt to get local news time. The ad itself is being released only on national cable - a smart move because the national news networks will undoubtedly air the clip repeatedly.
--> Things looked bleak for Team McCain, but that didn't stop them from firing right back at Obama. Their first defense: Obama is also rich. McCain's spokesman argued, "Does a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon really want to get into a debate about houses?" Interestingly, this argument would seem to run counter to McCain's logic, mentioned in yesterday's post, that $5 million makes you rich. In fact, McCain wouldn't think that Obama is rich at all. Unfortunately, they can't have it both ways. Either Obama is Paris Hilton or he's struggling with a mortgage and debating his retirement options...while on a private beach in Hawaii.
When this logic was realized, spokesman Brian Rogers (an individual who, based on his record so far this campaign, probably shouldn't have gone into a career that involved logical debate with other human beings) pulled out the trump card. For the past couple of years, Rudolph Giuliani played the 9/11 card whenever he was in trouble - you know, like when someone asked him a question. Thanks to Joe Biden for providing some hiliarous perspective on that one. Same to Jon Stewart.
As it turns out, John McCain has his own trump card, although this one has been in the deck for 30-something years. Rogers explained that the I-have-as-many-houses-as-I-want-to-have mistake is irrelevant, because "This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years -- in prison." Now I assume that that "house" doesn't count as one of the seven, but it's still an absolutely ridiculous response. McCain's campaign also threw out the POW line after McCain was accused of cheating at Rick Warren's megachurch forum by hearing the questions in advance, and earlier to explain why McCain wanted his wife to compete in a topless beauty pageant. McCain is indeed heroic for having endured torture as a POW, and for putting his life on the line in the first place by serving his country in the Navy. However, that doesn't absolve him of all past and future transgressions. Doing something honorable thirty years ago does not make your character above reproach now.
That being said, I think we can all take away lessons from McCain and Giuliani (keynote speaker at the RNC) for our own lives. For example, when a teacher asks you why you didn't do the homework, and doesn't believe your explanation that your dog ate it, reframe the accusation in terms of your past achievements: "You think I didn't do the homework? I did thirty hours of community service during my sophmore year, while hitting .314 for the varsity baseball team. How could I, such an exemplary young man, possibly have not done the homework?"
Or, you could go with the whole paper-eating dog routine. But the latter won't get you a primetime speaking engagement at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota.
--> Another day, another McCain gaffe. In fact, today, it was about once an hour. McCain was responding to a question by a voter at a town hall meeting in New Mexico, and indicated that he agreed with the necessity of reinstating the draft. Apparently, it takes a minimum of 500,000 troops to reach the gates of hell, in addition to strategic airstrikes and a naval blockade. For the record, as cool as that "dead or alive"-like assertion by McCain was, the metaphor doesn't really make sense. What would bin Laden do when we cornered him at the gates of hell? Personally, I think hell would welcome him with open arms. He would probably declare political sanctuary inside hell's gates, and we'd be forced to withdraw after receiving a strongly-worded letter of condemnation from the UN. Rather than chasing bin Laden all that way, I'd prefer to just get him where he's hiding now.
--> And finally, with the DNC only 4 days away, Denver continues to prepare itself, both physically and spiritually. Worried about police ignoring recent popular initiatives that repealed/scaled back penalties for possession of marijuana, a city panel charged with implementing these new laws passed a non-binding resolution urging police officers to "refraim from arresting or citing pot smokers during the convention." Apparently, the city of Denver would prefer to associate rampant drug use instead of law and order with the Democratic Party. That doesn't seem appropriate given most of the leading Democrats' views on the issue.
On the other hand, the lack of law and order seems perfectly appropriate for a Democratic Convention. In other words, go nuts, Harrison! (Disclaimer: I obviously haven't been trying to attack Harrison negatively these past two days. It's merely that he's the only personal connection I have to Denver, and given his laid-back personality, it's incredibly easy to tie him to any number of hippy-related characteristics. Once the DNC is over, I promise I'll lay off, dude. No promises for the next week, though.)
That's all for today; I had a shift off, which is why I was able to post again. My next entry may not be until Sunday, but I promise to have one then. Maybe sooner if Obama's VP announcement gets me really pumped up (and by the way, he's made his choice).
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