McCains Bought Second Beach Condo At Around Time McCain Said Struggling Homeowners Needed To Skip Vacations
Here's a fun little find that is likely to give Dems more ammo to blast away at John McCain's number-of-houses gaffe.
It turns out that a few months ago, a McCain family corporation closed on a second multi-million-dollar beach condo in the same building in exclusive Coronado, California -- at around the same time that John McCain offered his somewhat tone-deaf observation that struggling homeowners were "working at second jobs" and "skipping a vacation" in order to make mortgage payments on time.
Cindy McCain discussed the timing of the second condo purchase in a June interview with Vogue magazine (not online) that's newly relevant in light of the explosive controversy over John McCain's inability to recall how many homes the McCains own.
And in another fun fact that could pour fuel on this controversy, Cindy told her interviewer that the reason they needed a second beach condo in the Coronado building was that the first was too crowded because her kids were staying there and as a result she "couldn't get in the place."
Cindy continued: "So I bought another one."
Here's the relevant passage, from the start of the Vogue piece:
It is a late Sunday afternoon in April, and I am sitting in a condominium in Coronado, California, taking in the view of the gorgeous San Diego Bay with Cindy McCain. She closed on the place just two weeks earlier, and the only things unpacked so far are the family photos that dot almost every surface. It's her family's second condo in the building. "I like the ocean, and the kids love it here, and I love that," she tells me, curled up on a nondescript couch that looks like it might have come with the apartment. "When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh, this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go.' Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."
According to a July story in The Politico, a McCain family corporation spent a combined $4.7 million on the two condos in Coronado.
If the interview was conducted sometime in April, and she'd closed on the condo two weeks earlier, that means that the latest the closing could have happened is mid-April, and the earliest is mid-March.
On March 25, John McCain said:
And 51 million homeowners are doing what's necessary: working at second jobs, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets to make their payments on time.
So at around the time McCain said this, the McCain family corporation was either actively in the market for, or had closed on, a second multi-million-dollar beach condo in the same building which was necessary because the first one was too crowded with their children in it.
Now you're just nitpicking. It's really only four homes, condos, mansions, estates, whatever that they actually live in, not 37.
August 21, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Totally nitpicking. Just the same type of stunt you'd expect from William Jennings Bryan!
http://strategy08.wordpress.com
August 21, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
OK, the score is 127-0 Obama after five innings. Time to call the mercy rule on this.
... or not!
August 21, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
No mercy for the liars!
Sheesh, I want a "family corporation."
August 21, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
yesivotedforbush,
HEY!, its the wrinkly old white haired guy.
August 21, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm tired of working to pay my mortgage, taxes, gas, food, health insurance.
I want Cindy & John McCain to adopt me!
August 21, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get Mother Teresa to talk to them for you. Oooops. Uh, pray for her intercession, I guess.
August 21, 2008 5:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
You should do like John McCain.
Stop whining and dump your wife, and marry a multi-millionaire. If she can't buy you political office, what good is she anyway?
It's the honorable American way to get rich.
August 21, 2008 5:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
and all those other houses they bought are just "investments"---how nice of them to get investments like that when I'm struggling to make ends meet on $31,000 a year.
Time for a new job, bitches.
August 21, 2008 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The "POW" defense is starting to get some ridicule. Ben Smith at Politico wrote:
http://strategy08.wordpress.com
August 21, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Smith says that well, it's indeed what's happening, thank God.
August 21, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
No wonder McSame is so tight with Phil Gramm and his predatory sub-prime lender friends.
August 21, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
There are six houses on their Sedona ranch alone. Does it really make sense to count that as one home, just because they're all on the same property? How many houses do most people have on their property?
I'm sorry, that's nitpicking again.
August 21, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I got a doghouse on my property - does that count as two houses?
August 21, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've got a refrigerator box... does that count as a second home? How about a big Sunday NY Times and a subway grate?
August 21, 2008 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
See how rich you are! We'll be looking for your place on MTV's Cribs!
August 21, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can put a small 1 person tent on the balcony of my apartment. Hey does that count? It is even a green home! Uses no utilities whatsoever :)
Hey Cindy! I could have saved you a few mil. I have 2 teenage boys in a 2 bedroom rental apt. When they got too big to share a room, I put up a room divider in my living room. 1/2 is my sons room 1/2 is our living room. Come on!!!! Get cozy. Family is supposed to be close.
August 21, 2008 6:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think I'm going to start branding the McCain's Mr. and Mrs. Thurston Howell III. Whaddya think?:
http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/2008/08/mccain-doesnt-even-know-how-many-houses.html
I think it fits perfectly!
Kudos to TPM for finding this!!
August 21, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, I just remembered that Johnny Boy is a III as well! I love it.
August 21, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
!!!JohnSidneyMcMENTUM!!!! (III)
August 21, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
LuxVeritas,
hahahahahahaha.
Obama to McCain; 'If you don't behave I'm going to huff and puff and blow your 10 houses down.'
August 21, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
It would take a lot of puffing, these aren't small properties :P
August 21, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."
I love Cindy McCain's justifications.
Ya know, the only way to travel around Arizona is by private jet, so I bought one!
August 21, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ha, it's sort of like that show "Million Dollar Listing" on Bravo, where they show all these rich people buying homes. This one woman spent $225,000 for a summer lease just so her sons could surf right on the ocean from that summer house.
August 21, 2008 3:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Remember the anecdote about McCain's mother not being able to rent a car in France because of her age? McCain bragged about the fact that she showed those Frenchies who's boss: She just went out and BOUGHT herself a car! So there! Those elite Frogs can't tell a MCCAIN what to do!
I never quite took the same message from that little story that he intended (that she is so together and feisty and wonderful that she won't take no for an answer). I always thought, "Who can relate to a story like that?"
Nobody ever questioned his take on it though. Maybe it will get revisited.
August 21, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Reminds me of Victor Kiam and the old electric shaver commercial -- "I liked it so much . . . I bought the company!"
August 21, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I think it's definitely time for this video to get a new airing.
August 21, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is it just me, or does it bother anyone else that she never calls him "John?" It is always, "my husband" even if she has to awkwardly do it 3 times in one sentence!
August 21, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cville says;
"I can't find my fiancee, has anybody seen my fiancee? I seem to have lost my fiancee"
Elaine: "Maybe the dingo ate your fiancee" :-)
August 21, 2008 5:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why aren't we demanding Cindy McCain release her tax returns?
Ummm, she wasn't a POW too, was she?
August 21, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
...because she doesn't have too...
August 21, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bzzzzzzz. Sorry buckaroo, if Theresa Heinz Kerry had to release her tax returns, then so does Cindy McCain.
What's good for the wives of Democratic candidates is good for the wives of Republican candidates.
August 21, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
...if I'm not mistaken, she didn't give up her taxes...
August 21, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, you are mistaken, because she did release partial tax returns, just like your hero's wife, Cindy.
But isn't funny how, in 2004, the Weekly Standard said:
about Kerry, but not John "Seven Houses" McCain?
August 21, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
No funnier than being a kept man and vietnam vet was golden for the Dems at the same time...I guess it is funny when you think about it.
August 21, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice try recycling your talking points.
Why not mention the "party of McGovern."
Translation: Obama scored with this, big time.
Your sqealing any Bush-like "looky over here, over here" speaks volumes.
August 21, 2008 5:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://mediamatters.org/items/200804180007
And do you remember the hissy fit the whole of the right wing through about her tax records? I do. I thought they would have a brain aneurism.
August 21, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I never threw a hissy fit and I'm a right-winger.
August 21, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
You are obviously an atypical rightwinger because you hang out with all the crazy progressives (ooh! you might get COOTIES) at TPM....
August 21, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Some days I do have to spend extra time in the shower to feel clean again...lol
August 21, 2008 4:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't Kerry's wife have to in 2004?
August 21, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
nisleib,
I don't think she 'had' to, but the wingnuts made a big thing of it and the allegedly "liberal media" did as they usually do, picked up and ran with the right wing cudgel so Heinz Kerry did release a part of her 2003 income tax return that showed "total income," which enabled The New York Times to analyze how she benefited from the Bush tax cuts.
Such an analysis of how the McCains have benefited from the tax cuts -- which Sen. McCain supports extending permanently -- is not possible, based on the information his campaign has released on Cindy McCain's income."
August 21, 2008 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
that was from Media Matters. Sorry aobut the delay in attribution.
August 21, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Especially since McCain doesn't benefit at all from her money, businesses, connections.....
August 21, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
He would never dream of flying on her private jet, even though the ONLY way to get around Arizona is via private jet.
August 21, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Schrodingers,
free beer.
August 21, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
ooooh I love your avatar. I want one! Do they sell those in real life? Or is it a photoshop production? I love the little feet.
August 21, 2008 7:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
This meme is just the gift the keeps on giving.
August 21, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
This story has legs!
McCain: Ten houses are fine if you're a POW.
August 21, 2008 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
But regular 'nam vets? Fuck them, they deserve to be homeless!
August 21, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
What are you talking about? According to Bill OReilly there are NO homeless Vets...
August 21, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I looked into Bill O'Reilly's eyes and I saw his asshole.
August 21, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
August 21, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't have to look that deep, didja?
August 21, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice catch.
Maybe it's just me, but Cindy McCain seems more like Jan Crouch with each passing day.
August 21, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice job, Greg! I hope this gets more media attention. Really great work.
August 21, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed. Great find Greg. Exceptional investigative reporting.
August 21, 2008 3:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe struggling homeowners should take a vacation to the goddamn HANOI HILTON!
JOHN McCAIN WAS A P.O.W!
August 21, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
IOKIYAPOW.
H/T to nisleib, I believe.
August 21, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh shit Lamont, that is a brutal line of attack.
Mr Jones: Please don't forclose on my house, I have no place else to go.
Banker: Were you ever a POW?
Mr Jones: No, but if you'll let me keep my home...
Banker: Sorry, in order to qualify you have to have been a POW at least no less than 30 years ago.
Mr Jones: But if you want to stick me with hot pokers or beat me up I'm cool with that, just let me keep my house.
Banker: Sorry, you have to be at least a 1000 years old, a republican, and married to a heiress to qualify for the exception.
August 21, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL!
August 21, 2008 5:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mother Teresa blesses all the McCan'ts homes and condos! She's just the cutest thing alive and she does provide for her family; whoops I guess not her half-sisters, tho.
August 21, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
haha! The McCains bought 10 houses because Mother Teresa told them to!
August 21, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Naw, it was a hot tip he got from John Lewis.
August 21, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least her half sister isn't living in a mud hut...
August 21, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought she was an only child...
August 21, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only child of her parents...I guess she had a 15 year old half sister when she was born who lived with her father's ex-wife.
August 21, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
She used to be, but she's got an older sister now.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93708729
August 21, 2008 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Barack Obama isn't responsible for the seeds produced by his whore of a father. The man ran around Africa sticking his dick in any hole he could find both before and after he abandoned him. Now he's supposed to sweep the continent for any impoverished half siblings and break them off some of his hard earned money?
My pops was the same way and I couldn't give a flying fuck about any by products of his philandering ways.
August 21, 2008 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and somehow John McCain is responsible for all the offspring that his father-in-law produced in the 30's?
August 21, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here is the difference: Obama has not denied he has half brothers and sisters, Cindy McCain has.
But I guess it is okay if you are married to a POW.
August 21, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
So she grew up at home with her parents by herself...and that's not an only child? It's not like she had a crazy sister locked in the attic and was lying about it....Y'all are getting close to insane here...
August 21, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy McCain is the one who has been claiming to be an only child for years and you are the one who is bagging on Obama for having a half brother who lives in a mud hut. If you don't want us to talk about how Cindy inherrited millions and left her half sister squat than maybe you shouldn't mention Obama's half siblings whom Obama has only met once.
Take your meds and stop throwing stones while standing in a glass house.
August 21, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
I no longer know what we're talking about...
August 21, 2008 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's something about someone looking like John Kerry or voting for the VP before she was against it...
August 21, 2008 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Shit, so funny.
I'm gonna go read it again...
August 21, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Add houses from this jedreport YouTube video that's at HuffingtonPost:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/01/the-mccain-residences-a-g_n_110118.html
I think they say there are TWO different properties in La Jolla, I think there's an Arizona property that hasn't appeared in compilations yet, and I believe the narrator enumerates MULTIPLE condo buildings where units have been combine.
So, please get cracking and fact check these, Mr. Professional Journalists, Sirs!
August 21, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah I saw that. I think the final number is between 10 and 13, and that it's probably 13.
That's a hell of a lot of property tax. I'd love to know just how they dodge and whittle away at those taxes, cause you know they do.
August 21, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love this. Finally, calling him out!
August 21, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mother Teresa blesses all the McCan'ts homes and condos! She's just the cutest thing alive and she does provide for her family; whoops I guess not her half-sisters, tho.
August 21, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mother Teresa blesses all the McCan'ts homes and condos! She's just the cutest thing alive and she does provide for her family; whoops I guess not her half-sisters, tho.
August 21, 2008 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
what the hell happened..triple post??
August 21, 2008 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's what happens when you get a little too excited over this stuff...
August 21, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
New Swift Boat from Repub 527, linking Obama to Ayers:
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0808/New_group_plans_Ayers_attack_on_Obama.html#comments
August 21, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, the McCain team is desperate to change the subject. I hope the media won't buy into it.
August 21, 2008 3:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ouch, but we knew this was coming.
August 21, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
PLs, Ayers. McCain is connected to Keating 5, Viki Isman, and lobbyist with terroist ties. The progressives can dish it to.
August 21, 2008 3:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
not counting on the media to go after McCain on the Keating scandal, lobbyists or anything.
McCain is the new teflon man.
August 21, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama said during the primaries that he would use the Keating scandal against McCain.
I hope it's featured prominently during the convention.
August 21, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
From May 10:
If you think about it, this might play out well. Obama mocks the 37 homes of McCain, McCain bleats "REZKO REZKO REZKO", and Obama returns with "Keating" and how the savings and loan scandal was a disaster for the whole country....
August 21, 2008 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
And the Keating scandal ties in with the mortgage crisis in direct, obvious ways.
Obama can himself attack McCain legitimately, where McCain will have to depend on surrogates for the Jeremiah Wright and Ayers type stuff.
Whether this means the Keating stuff has the legs that the other crap does is up to Obama.
August 21, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
excellent point! Might just work.
August 21, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hard to understand why a guy who bombed the US Capitol was never charged with a crime.
August 21, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
"with federal charges against both fugitives dropped due to prosecutorial misconduct (see COINTELPRO), Ayers was ready to turn himself in to authorities, but Dohrn remained reluctant until after she gave birth to two sons, one born in 1977, the other in 1980. "He was sweet and patient, as he always is, to let me come to my senses on my own", she later said.[1]
Ayers and Dohrn later became legal guardians to the son of former Weathermen David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin after the boy's parents were arrested for their part in the Brinks Robbery of 1981."
August 21, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Better now than in late September.
I think, at some point, Obama is going to have to loosen up on the "No advertising from 527s" theme, because the media isn't going to do its job about any of this.
August 21, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Obama can point out Liddy here, if this gets any traction.
(I'm still deathly worried about the Wright 527's though)
August 21, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ayers is a white man. Nobody cares about white domestic terrorists.
August 21, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please give the double-talk express a break. He was a POW!
August 21, 2008 3:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention they just non-chalantly purchased a multi-million dollar property in the middle of a presidential campaign.
August 21, 2008 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
And 51 million homeowners are doing what's necessary because of Bush's economic plan, which I whole-heartedly support: working at second jobs, skipping a vacation, and managing their budgets to make their payments on time.
Fixed.
http://pufferfish.typepad.com/
August 21, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
How's John McCain going to curtail spending in Washington when he can't even do it at home?
August 21, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Barry-Hussein-Obama, how did you get YOUR house? Barry is melting...NATIONAL SECURITY... 3AM...
McCain/Clinton (with Maureen Dowd's help) 2008!
August 21, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've lost it. You aren't even trying to make sense anymore.
I think GOP trolls are having meltdowns over this. I mean look at this goofball, his rantings usually make some sense, in a downs syndrome kind of way.
August 21, 2008 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Another case of POW PTSD.
August 21, 2008 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Barry-Hussein-Obama, how did you get YOUR house? Barry is melting...NATIONAL SECURITY... 3AM..."
Weak, try again...
August 21, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
wait...wait...fog is shaping in the crystal...ah yes, a forlorn figure leaning over a worn copy of, i can barely read it...there it is, "Trolling for Dummies"?
Freebie:
I see no blogging job in your future.
Lotto number:
29 72 7 0
August 21, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
O like you.
Are you new? Are you going to stick around, please?
August 21, 2008 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
My troll senses went through the roof this week. I can't help but get my fix.
August 22, 2008 10:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't think McCain's Blogging Service is going to pay you for that bit...
August 21, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
ALL Veterans have 10 homes!! Leave McCain alone!!!! so what if he votes against housing funds for veterans, they don't need that 11th home!
somebody please pass this info on to the Obama campaign.
August 21, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Ben Smith, Politico:
According to McCain's line of $5-million being considered rich, Obama does not qualify as rich.
I guess Obama should stop spending that whopping $3 on lettuce then.
August 21, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Americans don't want to pick lettuce for $50/hour
August 21, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, that's a lot of lettuce...too much lettuce.
August 21, 2008 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you seen the American ad campaign for juice that imitates the English ad campaign for Christmas food from Marks and Spencer? You know, those ads for juice where this annoying would-be-seductive female voice languorously tells us how ripe and luscious the fruit is that's been picked at the height of sensual deliciousness and put in this juice? (BTW, I've had the damn stuff and it's just juice, overpriced juice, dammit. And the badly designed bottle explodes juice all over your hands when you hold it by the middle.)
...And if you've seen the Marks and Spencers ads, you know what I mean....
Anyway, someone should do that for what now appears to be at least 13 properties for McCain, counting combined units.
A sensual, languorous voice drawling about the fine antiques...the expensive decorators...the raw-silk curtains woven by 14-year-old slave laborers at the peak of their careers...the Mexican-born lawn workers rubbing themselves with, oooh, cancer-causing chemicals before scattering them on the lawns and in the pools....
Etc., etc.
August 21, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
I see on the intertubes that McCain is cutting a Rezko ad. Thoughts?
August 21, 2008 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
If not now than later. Better to get them to burn their ammo in defense and on Obama's time. I wish they'd use Rev. Wright.
I don't believe Rezko is going to catch on though, too convoluted.
August 21, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
And too yesterday's news.
They are also attacking him on Ayers (who was never charged for the things he did when Obama was 6 years old.)
Team McCain's tactics smell of desperation and old people.
August 21, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
c'mon...Rezko, thats old news thnx to Hannity. And regaeding Rev. Wright, McCain has got his own pastor problems.
August 21, 2008 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think its been played out a bit to much already so i doubt it will have much affect expect to make Obama's rope a dope plan even more effective.
August 21, 2008 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent. McGoo's using all his powder and Obama hasn't even had to say the words "Keating 5" yet.
Keep swingin', McGoo!
August 21, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lamont,
I bust out laughing everytime I see your avatar and the word "McGoo" :-)
August 21, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think McCain's people are losing it. They are rattled and are flailing away in a panic.
Good. They only holler when they're hit.
August 21, 2008 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why do two people need eight homes? I guess 7 are for John and Cindy. And one is for Viki Isman and McRich and his lobby terroist friends.
August 21, 2008 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Eight times more kids to tell to get the hell off the lawn.
August 21, 2008 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
best
reply
ever
August 21, 2008 7:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure one of homes is for the president of Georgia--he may be living in exile soon.
August 21, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
And one of the condos is probably where Pervez will land after he quits Pakistan.
August 21, 2008 5:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
He can't get into the first one because it's full of Taliban. They're beach people, for sure.
August 22, 2008 4:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
LOL doublecola. love that line on the Georgia pres.
I have another question---do the McCains ever show up anywhere with their adopted child? isn't that curious the only one out there is meghan?
August 21, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
How many surrogates will speak to McCain's housing hoard? Check the lead post on Daily KOS...This is really what I'd like to see happen!
August 21, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Apphouse50 on the previous thread, MoveOn or someone should start a ticker to keep track of how many times McCain uses his POW status as a defense of something, much like their ticker of how long it's been since Obama's been to Iraq.
August 21, 2008 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is McCain turning into Thurston Howell III right before our very eyes?
August 21, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
wait a minute - what's this about the "McCain Family Corporation"? He has a corporation to run his family? I guess I'm ignorant when it comes to how the über-rich manage their finances, but do they set up a corporation for their personal use which pays lower taxes? WTF?
August 21, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, this is very typical for the very wealthy. And often there is more than one such corporation.
August 21, 2008 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great stuff.
Bravo to Obama, TPM, everyone who is digging up stuff on this.
It obviously stings McCain which is why they are so angry. Yet the more they fight back, the more attention it gets. Americans obviously don't know much about this McCain, so the more they know, the worse for him.
Keep digging. Keep the surrogates attacking. Keep the ads coming.
August 21, 2008 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
In fairness, maybe they saved money by buying the condo in a foreclosure sale.
August 21, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
The knockout blow could be found in an ad like this:
"I guess some Veterans are just more important than others."
*juxtaposed footage of VA hospitals with footage from the McCains' beautiful homes*
August 21, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice.
August 21, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
And add in McCain's pitiful rankings from Veterans groups.
August 21, 2008 4:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Precisely. Remind people that Support The Troops is more than a slogan. Remind them that John McCain uses his POW experience as a political football. If Vets were pissed at Kerry for airing our dirty laundry, they should be pissed at McCain for hanging Vets out to dry.
August 21, 2008 4:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
"When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh, this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go.'
You know, when most people think of things they wasted money on, it's probably that pair of shoes that sits unused in the closet, or the waffle iron. And they think back ruefully, because that $100 could have been better spent on something else.
Not John McCain. When he thinks of wasting money, it's dropping $2M on a condo. And even though he thinks its a waste, he does it anyway.
A real man of the people, that John McCain.
August 21, 2008 4:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
O Greggy - you're good. You're very good.
August 21, 2008 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Check out this hilarious article from The Guardian UK:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/08/at_home_with_john_and_cindy.html
August 21, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is my compilation of the confusing litany of properties I've been hearing about for McCain. Maybe I add a tidbit of information, like the "Cornville, Arizona" detail for the lavish McCain spread. I don't know that I have all the accurate details for all of the condos, the number of condo units, etc.
1. Coronado, California: Condo unit at 1710 Avenida del Mundo.
2. Coronado, California: 2nd condo unit at 1710 Avenida del Mundo.
3. La Jolla, California: One or two condos. Or only one? And they are or it is at 8263 Camino del Oro?
4. Arlington, Virginia: The "Crystal City" property. Condo at 1300 Crystal Drive.
5. Phoenix, Arizona: 2 condos combined at 2211 E. Camelback Road.
6. Cornville, Arizona: The "Sedona Estate" also referred to as "Page Springs, Arizona," but Google Maps says it is Cornville, Arizona. 4-6 houses on the estate, which includes, at least, the following addresses: 11455 E. Hidden Valley Ranch Road, 11445 E. Hidden Valley Ranch Road, and 11415 E. Hidden Valley Rand Road.
7. Phoenix, Arizona: The "Biltmore" property, referring to the Biltmore neighborhood of Phoenix. 2 condos, one of which is now for sale, at 4326 N. 25th Street.
August 21, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
You've got waaaay to much time on your hands.
Try some charity work.
August 21, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is charity work.
August 21, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let them eat cake!
August 21, 2008 4:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's it? McCain's got too many houses?
Sounds like the Heinz-Kerry bullshit of '04. I guess its ok to be rich as long as you're a Democrat.
The double standard is amazing.
August 21, 2008 4:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Almost, try again...
August 21, 2008 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow. Snappy come back. You thought that one up all by yourself?
August 21, 2008 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
You mean the way Republicans treated the Kerrys like elitists but act like John McCain is a hardscrabble man of the people? You're right, the double-standard is amazing.
http://bacontherobotmonkey.blogspot.com/
August 21, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Johnny2Bad,
there's no double standard, the wingnuts started this tactic with Heinz/Kerry making it open season on the subject, no double standard involved.
August 21, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Kerry ain't running this time around. And I bet he at least knew how many houses he owned.
August 21, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
ROFLMAO!
Well you know, bullshit or not, Kerry didn't win in '04.
Just sayin'
August 21, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Real point is that it was McCain painting BHO as an out of touch celbrity/elitist who doesn't understand the real America (Harley bikers and their beauty contests, etc.). . .So much for McCain trying to portray himself as down-home humble folk now.
August 21, 2008 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmm, last year I closed my restaurant, sold my house for less than I bought it for, kinda sucked. But now I work two jobs go to school full time and damnit, my apartment IS feeling a little crowded. I know just how she feels. That poor woman.
August 21, 2008 4:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, with the size of John's ego right about that time, it probably did get a little crowded.
August 21, 2008 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I shouldn’t put it pass you that you miss the point in this, its not the money or the houses, it’s the fact that he can’t keep track of them.
August 21, 2008 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ambinder is all aflutter about how 'tough' the Reps are going to hit now. The post is almost breathless. What gives ah?
August 21, 2008 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, McCain is really just like us. I've got a friend with the same problem! He doesn't have enough space in his home anymore because...oh wait, maybe it's a little different. My friend lives 50 miles from the Pacific Ocean, his house was nearly foreclosed on last year, and now his 86 year old father is moving in because the apartment building he's been living in for 14 years has been foreclosed on and there isn't a rental without rats available for this man on a fixed income who served in WW2. Oh, and the guys son has to move out to make way for the grandparents.
Yeah, I really feel it now. McCain is one of us. And he doesn't like arugula and I don't like arugula. Amazing. Oh, and I've been known to steal food recipes from the Food Network too! I'm feeling so at-one with this family!
August 21, 2008 4:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Spoof of MTV Cribs.
Somebody do it.
August 21, 2008 4:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the Lord's doing...and it is MARVELOUS in our eyes
August 21, 2008 4:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Guys, Politico is running the Colorado gaffe, and McWar is flip flopping already, but Colorado governor, and Democratics are running a conference call.
I am sure it is going to get some legs...
This is a good day for Senator Obama...
He is on fire, and I think his surrogates have understood they need to fight...
August 21, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
If that's not the next ad out of the Obama camp, I'll be shocked.
August 21, 2008 4:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
the mccain campaign said that obama attacks are actually towards cindy, because she owns the house. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
a republican hiding behind his wife
HAHAHAHAHHA
this truely is the gift that keeps on giving
August 21, 2008 4:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
here is the link:
http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/08/mccain_prepares_rezko_ad_wrigh.php
August 21, 2008 4:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
exactly goodstuff. that camp likes to dish it out but the minute you push back they cry foul. too funny.
August 21, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
the actually threw cindy under the bus...blame her, she is the one that owns them!
Hahahahahah
August 21, 2008 4:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
By the way, today's a good a day as any to donate to Obama ... show the campaign that we appreciate them fighting back. I'm throwing them a little extra coin right now.
http://bacontherobotmonkey.blogspot.com/
August 21, 2008 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
How many square feet are in each of the Coronado condos? And how many children do the McInsanes have?
(The ratio of square feet per person might be politically salient.)
August 21, 2008 5:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy owns all these properties?
Sounds like ol' John is a "kept man."
August 21, 2008 5:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
According to Halperin, next ad will be Wright and Rezko... or at least they are now going to use him.
Apparently Obama opened this door. LOL.
Laughable.
August 21, 2008 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
The further away from November 4th that they go there, the better.
August 21, 2008 5:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
gAwD! McNasty ought to have gotten implants by now. If we have to look at those atrocious dentures of his for four years, the Republican party will go out of business. On second thought... print ads featuring McCaine ought to show just his big smile, rather than his entire face. That can kill his chances right there.
August 21, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
She was sitting around the condo and realized that there was just too many people there so she figured she'd just buy another. How the hell did Grampy McCain score this goldmine? I want to be a maintained man too! He was dumb to try to auction her off or whatever he was trying to do.
August 21, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
the ad is rezko but now they feel they need to pull out all the stops and bring out wright too. probably next week. the link to ambinder above gives all the details.
But the Obama camp already responded suggesting McCain take at day off at one of his homes and think about the economy.
August 21, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
So, the McCain's now have even more luxury properties, while the Vietnam Veterans of America estimated in testimony before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs in April of this year, the number of homeless vets on any given night is about 150,000. As quoted from the testimony:
"Homelessness continues to be a significant problem for veterans. The VA estimates about one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services. Current population estimates suggest that about 154,000 veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year."
Here is the link: http://www.vva.org/testimony/summaries/2008/040908 What incredibly disgusting shallow hypocrites the McCains are. They should be ashamed to show their faces before an American Legion or VFW event.
August 21, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
FYI the McCains bought the condo a couple days before March 19, 2008. The deed was recorded in San Diego County on that day, document number 2008-0144860. It's online: http://arcc.co.san-diego.ca.us/services/grantorgrantee/search.aspx
Dream Catcher Family is the corporation.
August 21, 2008 5:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do any of the McCain's beachfront properties have private beaches? (Apropos McCain slamming Obama for vacationing on a private beach in Hawaii -- which has since been proven to be untrue, even if it mattered.)
McCain's "response" via Obama's house purchase > Rezko is playing the "change-the-subject" game. We/Obama should ignore it. Just keep hammering on the 4 or 7 or 10 houses. Keep asking how many he owns. His supporters are saying now "Now it's done from 10 to 4 houses... Many of his properties are condos." THAT's a good one. The point is being a "home-owner." Just rephrase: how many properties he owns, including land lots in Arizona (and elsewhere)? How many planes? A yacht (or 2?). How many swimming pools do they have? Keep it up.
And if they want to play the Rezko game, note: 1) this is the only corrupt associate in Obama's past; 2) vs. McCain's many, including the Hensley family's mob roots. With all the outrageous smears being brought against Obama, this story needs to come out. Link it to Keating Five, etc.; 3) Rezko and Ayers are only 2 of Obama's 30,000 close personal friends, who span the gamut from left to right. To single someone out because of their extremism is tempting, of course, but ridiculous in light of how many people he knows and has worked with over the years. This was his response in the ABC debate and it was the right one, the beginning, at least, of a good response to this issue.
August 21, 2008 5:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
here's the mccain initial pushback.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12700.html
we'll see what the coverage is like for the evening news crowd...
August 21, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
From a MyDD comment:
"How fast do you think they could make up signs saying "How many houses do YOU own?" or bumperstickers: "My Other House...Is Owned By John McCain"..."
Not a bad idea.
August 21, 2008 5:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
as John McCain might say -
"you cunt"
August 21, 2008 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Steven Speilberg is doing a remake of an old movie;
The Magnificent 7 Houses
August 21, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought it was Seven Houses for Seven Brothers.
August 21, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ocean's 7 Houses :-)
August 21, 2008 6:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
I bet Paris Hilton knows how many houses she owns.
August 21, 2008 5:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could another video of her talking about the importance of knowing how many homes one owns be too far behind. The last one probably did more for her career since that first naughty one.
August 21, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I suppose I should have said for Paris: did more for advancing her hobby, not her career.
August 21, 2008 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Paris and McCain have something in common...they both own seven homes.
August 21, 2008 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is that actually true? Oh please let it be true.
August 21, 2008 6:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cindy Mccain just told reporters: "Let them eat cake."
August 21, 2008 5:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
In honor of Lux Veritas idea upthread:
Thurston Howell McCain
Too stinking funny :)
August 21, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
The evening news networks are all over this latest McCain gaffe.
Thanks you John & Cindy---LOSERS!!!
August 21, 2008 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for watching and reporting on what the network news is doing, so I don't have to. It's all I can do to watch CNN.
August 21, 2008 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
The question would this be McCain's $400 haircut. It is starting to look like it. It won't doom him, but what little he gained in the last couple of weeks is now lost. The lord giveth and the lord taketh away.
August 21, 2008 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Attach ad to McF**kShame’s POW card:
-----------------------------------------------------
Background: sad screwed up tune...
Visual: screwed up veterans are going through trash bins, sleeping “under the bridge” , wearing salvation army cloths … (add more screwed up things)
Voice: thousand of veterans are going through {add the screwed up things from above}, while honorable Vietnam veteran McSame can’t decide which one of his eight properties he is visiting tonight, wearing $500 shoes, riding private jet…..
Elite and out of touch McSame don’t understand us, don’t care for us…
-----------------------------------------------------
BTW, I’m from Canada, u stupid Americans, go ahead and die to elect that black guy, do at least one good thing in your life.
August 21, 2008 6:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Could we please get back to Mortgages!
Sheesh, if John's (second) wife wasn't so weathy. (His first -The model- wasn't so cute after her car wreck and having three children). He would have got help from his good friend Charles Keating on a loan... I mean they guy did give him 121K in contributions, private flights worth thousands and "inconsequential gifts probbaly worth no more than $50,000."
August 21, 2008 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a thought:
Use this in conjunction with the McCain as hothead meme. Keep the attack up, hammering away at McCain. This will get the media to do its thing of questioning McCain about it (just to get his response so they can give him a pass on it).
At some point, McCain is bound to get so irritated by the constant questions that he will blow up on camera and show voters why they should not let him anywhere near the white house.
August 21, 2008 7:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
A bunch of them hollywood liberals live in those condos. She better watch herself.
Orvill Redenbacher used to live there.
August 21, 2008 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain was a POW. Too bad he doesn't like talking about it.. otherwise Hussein Obama would have no chance against a WAR HERO. A POW.
But that'll go unmentioned for that's the humility one can expect of a POW, a WAR HERO.
POW.
August 22, 2008 2:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
John McCain, POW: Prisoner of Wealth
August 23, 2008 12:02 AM | Reply | Permalink