Housing crisis? One looms for McCain

A political gaffe, it is said, occurs when a politician inadvertently tells the truth.

Thus did Sen. John McCain's frank admission that he does not know how many homes he and his wife own spark the biggest, nastiest and the most entertaining mudfight of the presidential campaign.

"I think — I'll have my staff get back to you," the presumptive Republican nominee replied Thursday when asked about his homes by Politico. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

McCain's candor came as a godsend to Sen. Barack Obama, whose Democratic campaign has appeared to suffer under relentless attacks by McCain. For the first time, polls this week showed the race effectively tied.

Obama seized on McCain's stumble to ridicule him as grievously out of touch with middle-class Americans at a time of falling housing prices, soaring energy costs and widespread economic distress.

In a forum last week with the Rev. Rick Warren, McCain was asked to define the word "rich" and to give a figure. After promoting his tax policies, McCain cracked: "I think if you are just talking about income, how about $5 million?" The audience laughed; McCain didn't provide another dollar figure.

At the same forum, Obama said those making $250,000 and higher are in the top 3 to 4 percent and "doing well."

Obama also slammed McCain's claim this week that America's economic fundamentals are strong.

"I guess if you think that being rich means that you've got to make $5 million, and if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong," Obama told supporters in Chester, Va., on Thursday.

Obama also launched a national TV ad and 16 campaign stops in hopes of turning McCain's gaffe into one of those symbolic moments that stick in voters' minds. Think John Kerry sailboarding or the first President Bush wowed by a grocery checkout scanner, Michael Dukakis riding in a tank or Gerald Ford eating a tamale with the husk still on.

The McCain campaign later told Politico that McCain and his wife, Cindy, have at least four homes in three states: Arizona, California and Virginia.

However, property records reviewed by The Associated Press show that McCain and his family own at least eight homes. The number of houses is a bit trickier because an Arizona ranch has at least four houses and a two-story cabin.

In Obama's 30-second TV ad, an announcer says, "Maybe you're just struggling to pay the mortgage on your home," and that when McCain was asked how many homes he owns, he "lost track" of the number. "Here's one house Americans can't afford to let John McCain move into," the announcer says, referring to the White House.

The ad aims to turn the tables on the idea that Obama, a Harvard Law graduate, is the elitist in this campaign.

The description of McCain losing track of his homes also seemed to build on another attack that Obama supporters have been accused of making but have denied: that McCain, 71, is confused or forgetful.

The senator's confusion could be rooted in the scattered nature of the family's holdings. Public records show they were purchased by various family entities, with names such as Dream Catcher Family and Wild River, and at least one is listed as rental real estate.

While both sides are trying cast the other as too rich to understand the working class, the truth is neither candidate is hurting for money.

McCain's tax returns showed a total income of $405,409 in 2007. According to her 2006 tax returns, Cindy McCain had a total income of $6 million. Her wealth is estimated by some at $100 million, based on her late father's Arizona beer distributorship. She has not released her 2007 returns, which she files separately from her husband.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported making $4.2 million in 2007.

In 2004, Republicans tried to use wealth against Kerry even though President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were multimillionaires themselves. In 2005, Kerry reported a net worth between $165 million and $235 million, most of it controlled by his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry. Kerry and his wife owned five homes with a total value of $33 million.

Underscoring how seriously the McCain campaign is taking the house controversy, the Republican National Committee launched a Web site highlighting Obama's ties to Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a friend and contributor who was convicted in June on more than a dozen felonies in a corruption scandal.

Obama and his wife bought their Chicago home in 2005 for $1.6 million after receiving advice from Rezko. The corruption case had no connection to Obama, and Obama has said it was a mistake to work with Rezko on the house.

McCain's campaign also released a new ad highlighting the Obama-Rezko connection.

"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?" asked McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.

The campaign got one thing wrong: Hawaii has no private beaches. Obama, who was born in Hawaii and spent most of his youth there, visited relatives recently and joined the public in the ocean.

By day's end, the Democratic National Committee was threatening to escalate the fight further by highlighting McCain's connections to the 1989 "Keating Five" savings-and-loan scandal, in which the senator ended up before the Senate Ethics Committee.

"They go Rezko, we go Keating," said a Democratic strategist, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "If they want to escalate, bring it on."

Material from The Washington Post and McClatchy Newspapers is included in this report.