Many mansions vex McCain

John McCain isn’t sure how many houses he owns — four? seven? ten? — but the Obama campaign is darn sure McCain’s befuddlement will help keep voters from handing him the keys to a certain Pennsylvania Avenue address in Washington. And you can bet the one in 390 homeowners in foreclosure in Colorado have a better grasp than McCain of the number of homes they own — or are in danger of losing.

The Obama campaign today seized on an answer McCain gave yesterday when asked by Politico how many houses he and his wife own: “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you. It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.” Let’s hear that again:

McCain, who claimed over the weekend that Americans need to make $5 million a year to qualify as rich, had his staff look into it and they discovered four McCain abodes. Newsweek earlier counted at least seven houses, but a search of property records turns up 10.

Obama, tagged as an out-of-touch elitist by the McCain campaign, despite only owning a single house, came out swinging today: “If you’re like me and you’ve got one house – or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so that they don’t lose their home — you might have a different perspective.” The Obama campaign also released a blistering ad, which goes up on national cable today:

The Obama campaign charitably, or conservatively, goes with seven, rather than 10, houses in the McCain name, although, to be fair, the higher tally includes a house that’s on the market. Perhaps the McCains are downsizing in this troubled economy. That will be welcome news to the thousands of Colorado families on the verge of shedding a house. A week ago, RealtyTrac released figures showing Colorado had 5,376 properties in foreclosure last month. That’s one in every 390 households, up 10 percent from June. Nationwide, foreclosures were up 55 percent from a year ago.

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