“I have a lot of homes because in America you can succeed like my Father in Law.”

How is this an answer to the question: “How many homes do you own?”

However, was IS galling is the fact that he brings up the POW comment to provide cover for this home thing. I mean, do any of us need to be reminded that McCain was a POW again? And as if that excuses him forgetting? It just doesn’t square.

Well, like I said, I think McCain is over-selling the POW story to the extreme so we agree there.

Of course, there is a segment of the public for whom stuff like that resonates and you’d better believe that they’ll keep emphasizing that aspect of his biography if they think it will work.

Also, like I said, I don’t really think that an answer where someone acknowledges the fact that they’ve been lucky to have what they have is really all that bad.

I guess for me the question is — do any of us need to keep being reminded of how many houses John and/or Cindy McCain own or have an interest in ?

It’s irrelevant.

Move on to the next topic.

But of course John McCain doesn’t see that as a problem — because he did the exact same thing! Even better, McCain dated Cindy for more than half a year before he even separated from his wife and then lied about it in his 2002 memoir:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-divorce11-2008jul11,0,539385,full.story

Apparently, though, all should be forgiven because he was a POW? Please. He had no choice about becoming a POW, but he’s had plenty of choices about what kind of man to be since that time.

What else is he supposed to do ?

Say he’s going to give it all away and live in a cardboard box ?

Yeah, because that’s exactly what I meant. Doug, come on…

As Jim pointed out, it’s not the owning. As I said, I don’t begrudge the McCains their properties. And, to me, it’s not even the forgetting. Personally, I don’t care, but it does make McCain seem out of touch. Does that mean he IS out of touch? Well, possibly, but I’ll leave that up to the voters.

However, was IS galling is the fact that he brings up the POW comment to provide cover for this home thing. I mean, do any of us need to be reminded that McCain was a POW again? And as if that excuses him forgetting? It just doesn’t square.

Let’s be honest. It’s not the owning, it’s the forgetting. Forgetting how many houses you own is not like forgetting the pairs of shoes or something else like that. To the vast, overwhelming number of Americans actually forgetting houses. is just astonishing.

And as for why anyone should apologize for benefiting from free market capitalism I think you paint it too broadly. What about the beneficiaries of the multiple frauds of Enron? What about the coal companies that are not responsible in their mining practices like the ones that cut corners until miners die or remove the tops of mountains and destroy the local environment with the remains? Shouldn’t there be a tinge of embarrassment along with those success stories?

I agree that McCain may be over-playing the POW card sometimes, but I don’t see what’s all that wrong with this response.

He admits that he’s “blessed” to have what he has, he even says it’s all due to what his father-in-law accomplished.

What else is he supposed to do ?

Say he’s going to give it all away and live in a cardboard box ?

This is why I find the whole house debate bothersome…..why should anyone, whether it’s John McCain, or Bill Gates, or Bill Gates’ children, have to apologize for being the beneficiaries of the successes created by free market capitalism ?