How many houses? McCain is not sure

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain's inability in an interview to recall the number of homes he owns jeopardized his campaign's carefully constructed strategy to frame Democratic rival Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist and inspired a round of attacks yesterday that once again ratcheted up the negative tone of the race for the White House.

In an interview with Politico.com, the presumptive Republican nominee was asked how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, heir to a beer distributorship, owned.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," he replied. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee pounced with remarkable speed. By midmorning, reporters had received a video log featuring Cindy McCain's childhood estate in Phoenix, an Architectural Digest spread on another property the McCains owned previously, and tax records and photos detailing seven houses and condominiums - in Coronado and La Jolla, Calif.; Phoenix and Sedona, Ariz.; and Arlington, Va.

By 11 a.m., the Obama campaign had a TV ad titled "Seven" and was answering the question McCain could not.

"It's seven, seven houses, and here's one house Americans can't afford John McCain to move into," the ad concludes over an image of the White House. Including a California beachfront condo Cindy McCain bought for their children this year, the number of homes owned by the McCains rises to eight.

The McCain camp and Republican National Committee aides charged hypocrisy and argued that Obama had received help buying his Chicago mansion from businessman Tony Rezko, a convicted felon.

"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 spokesman Brian Rogers. (Hawaii has no private beaches, the Associated Press said.)

McCain quickly assembled a response ad on Obama's relationship with Rezko.

For a Democratic candidate suffering from a barrage of attacks on his "celebrity," McCain's inability to recall the scope of his family holdings was a timely break.

"I guess . . . 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 said in Chester, Va. "But if you're like me, and you've got one house, or you are like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective."

Obama campaign aides and Democratic National Committee researchers had been sitting on film clips, tax records, photos and other information on McCain's real estate holdings for weeks. The now-defunct Progressive Media USA had done polling on the potential line of attack and concluded that it alone would have little impact against McCain.

But Obama aides were collecting documentation of separate incidents they wanted to string together as a narrative: McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm's comment that the United States was "a nation of whiners" stuck in a "mental recession" and overstating the current economic woes; a McCain assertion that the economy is fundamentally strong; and McCain's crack Saturday at the Saddleback Civil Forum defining the threshold for "rich" as an income of $5 million a year.

When McCain made his comment to Politico, Obama communications director Dan Pfeiffer flashed the green light.

In Philadelphia, Obama's state headquarters announced "a statewide search to find Pennsylvanians who, like John McCain, have so many homes that they just can't keep track of the number." A campaign team was sent to JFK Plaza at lunchtime as part of the search. Similar activities were launched in other states, including Florida and Michigan.

McCain's wealth was bound to eventually become entangled in the debate. His campaign grudgingly released Cindy McCain's 2006 tax returns in May but would not release the more detailed schedules that delve into the source of her wealth. Her 2007 returns have not been released.

Those 2006 returns showed a woman with income that year of more than $6 million. The bulk of it - $4.55 million - came from real estate rentals, partnerships, and other passive ventures.

Those real estate holdings include a Sedona ranch with three dwellings, worth $1.1 million; a Phoenix condominium suite worth $4.7 million; an $847,800 three-bedroom high-rise condo in Arlington; an oceanfront condo in La Jolla, Calif.; a half-million-dollar loft in Phoenix purchased for their daughter Meghan; another Phoenix condo, worth $830,000; and two beachfront condos in Coronado, Calif., one valued at $2.7 million.

The other condo was bought this year, as John McCain was lamenting the difficulties Americans were facing to pay their mortgages. Cindy McCain told Vogue magazine the family needed the second condo because the first was getting too crowded as the family grew.