Houses Add Up to A Snag for McCain

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Obama Hits McCain on Personal Houses Question

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama campaigned in Chester, Va., on Thursday alongside Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. Obama attacked John McCain over the Republican's recent comment on how many houses he owns.

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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, a liberal activist group, had done polling on the potential line of attack and concluded that it alone would have little impact against McCain, whose "brand" as a maverick Republican has proved difficult to crack.

But Obama aides were collecting documentation of separate incidents they wanted to string together as a narrative: McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm's comment to the Washington Times 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 the Arizonan's comment Saturday at the Saddleback Civil Forum in California defining the threshold for being 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.

Even if the slip doesn't resonate broadly with the electorate, it could have meaning for the one group Obama has had the most difficulty with: working-class white voters, said Democratic strategist Tom Matzzie.

It also muddles what had been a clear Republican line of attack on Obama. Throughout the summer, the GOP had worked furiously to turn one of Obama's greatest strengths -- his ability to whip his supporters into a passionate movement -- into a weakness, framing him as an inexperienced, featherweight celebrity who is not ready to lead. Obama's edge in many national polls has dwindled since that line of attack was launched.

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

Those 2006 returns showed a woman with income that year of more than $6 million. Of that, just $299,418 came from wages and salary. 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 that had originally been two units, 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 of which is valued at $2.7 million. The other was purchased just this year, as McCain was lamenting the difficulties that struggling Americans were facing just to make their mortgage payments. Cindy McCain told Vogue magazine the family needed the second condo because the first was getting too crowded as their family grew.

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

The ferocity of the McCain campaign's response to Obama made it clear how seriously it viewed the potential for damage from the Arizonan's remarks.

"Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?" Rogers demanded. In an interview, he was even more animated, saying Obama lived in a "frickin' mansion" in Chicago and adding that he is confident McCain resonates more with regular Americans.

"In terms of who's an elitist, I think people have made a judgment that John McCain is not an arugula-eating, pointy-headed-professor type based on his life story."

But recent events, some of them attributable to McCain or his advisers, have threatened McCain's regular-guy image.

Saturday night, during an appearance with the Rev. Rick Warren, an evangelical leader, McCain was asked to define the word "rich" and responded: "I think if you are just talking about income, how about $5 million?" Warren and the audience laughed, and McCain quickly added: "But seriously, I don't think you can -- I don't think seriously that -- the point is that I'm trying to make here, seriously -- and I'm sure that comment will be distorted -- but the point is that we want to keep people's taxes low and increase revenues."

McCain had distanced himself from Gramm after the "whiners" comment but welcomed him back to the campaign at a meeting of advisers last week.

And liberal bloggers have struck as well, pointing out that McCain's standard campaign uniform of blue "Navy" baseball cap and khakis is anchored by a distinctive pair of $500 Ferragamo loafers.

Staff writer Michael D. Shear and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.