12 Houses?
Karl Rove makes the point that I’ve been making previously, namely that it’s genuinely hard to tell how many houses John McCain has:
Remember, the question from Mike Allen of Politico was how many houses do you and your wife own? Mrs. McCain is a wealthy woman. She owns a number of not only homes, some of which, for example, her elderly aunt lives in, but investment properties. And so Senator McCain has filled out forms on which that information is. But he can’t recall how many are considered houses, how many are considered investment properties. He’s filled out a form in the past.
For example, while most observers have said that McCain owns seven or eight houses, USA Today comes up with a count of twelve based on the idea that in addition to the structure the McCains sleep in while at their vacation compound there are “four other houses at the 15-acre Sedona spread.” Joe Romm at Climate Progress is putting some policy teeth on this by observing that the carbon footprint of maintaining all these homes is likely enormous, he estimates “that McCain has 10 times the carbon footprint of the average American home.” I think that may be an overestimate, though, since many of McCains homes are in the southwest where you tend to see below-average carbon footprints since you don’t need to heat in the winter.
UPDATE: Here’s a map of per capita carbon footprints by state.
57 Responses to “12 Houses?”
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August 22nd, 2008 at 10:09 am
I think that may be an overestimate, though, since many of McCains homes are in the southwest where you tend to see below-average carbon footprints since you don’t need to heat in the winter.
Yeah, but when you figure the higher-than-average square footage, add a few floor-to-ceiling windows and skylights, that a/c bill probably more than makes up for the heating bill.
Frankly, I think Obama could start hammering on his $230k yearly salary for housekeepers/landscaping. That’s more than five average salaries a year spent on just the upkeep on his real estate. And this is a guy who’s still content to let millions of Americans go without health care?
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Also, the bill jumped right before he ran for president. Call me cynical, but that may be because he purged any possibly illegal immigrants working for him and hired firms with documented workers only. Yes, I know that an Arizona senator may be more careful than most with such matters, but all the same, it’s worth some reporter checking it out.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Ixnay on the southwest meaning you don’t have to heat.
There’s no way Cindy is opening up the windows for fresh air in those penthouse condos high above all the exhaust on Camelback Road; they’re running heat in the winter and a/c in the summers.
And you do have to heat houses in Sedona. That’s why people from Phoenix have places up there.
I’d bet that the “ten times” figure is way low.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:13 am
Homes in the SW have a LARGER footprint, right? (due to air conditioning) I thought I’d seen a map that put the SE at the highest per capita, the SW 2nd, and the upper NE at 3rd.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
There are ways the Southwest has a bigger footprint, from air conditioning to long-distance transportation of unavailable commodities like water.
Kudos to Matt though for harping on this issue of the rich heiress wife and many houses. I think its great politics and was wondering when it was finally going to get some mass exposure.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:21 am
12 houses?
That’s a lot of tables to leap up on in hysterical fear every time he sees a Russian on TV.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:22 am
Come on, Matt. Enough with the houses. Attack McCain on things that matter slightly more to his presidency. Being out of touch sucks, but you should focus on the effects of this rather than the possible causes.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 am
You can use a swamp (evaporative) cooler in AZ/NM/West Texas, because the air is so dry. Highly doubtful that the McCains do, though.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:27 am
You have to appreciate the way Rove slipped in the bit about the elderly Aunt, who the McCain’s no doubt saved from a life of crushing Dickensian poverty by giving her a home. NIce work.
Also, if the McCain’s can spend over $200,000 on servants and landscapers in the Southwest and not hire a single illegal alien, then they deserve serious props. That is not easy to do.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 am
Hundreds, even thousands, of readers = “mass exposure”?
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
Adam: Its not just about being out of touch. Its also about the character and a life story of a candidate to which people can relate. In some ways Obama can be and has been portrayed as having foreign life story to which most Americans can’t relate–with international travel, a minority race, nontraditional name, etc. But in other ways Obama is much more of a self-made man with humble roots in the mold of Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton, which is something people respect and which needs to be drawn out to differentiate Obama from McCain. McCain has a reputation for being a traditional all-American hero type when, in fact, his life story is anything but that of a common man. He was born into privilege and then married into exorbinant privilege and would not be in the position he’s in today without that unearned privilege. So I think Matt and the media are right to push this story in order to debunk some default and wrong assumptions people have.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:33 am
I live in AZ, and it can get pretty cold in the winter, especially at night, so we use our heaters. Swamp coolers during the monsoon season is pretty useless, so most people use A/C and they’re on constantly.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:34 am
I want to know what kind of healthcare those servants and landscapers have.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
Adam: Its not just about being out of touch. Its also about the character and a life story of a candidate to which people can relate. In some ways Obama can be and has been portrayed as having foreign life story to which most Americans can’t relate–with international travel, a minority race, nontraditional name, etc. But in other ways Obama is much more of a self-made man with humble roots in the mold of Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton, which is something people respect and which needs to be drawn out to differentiate Obama from McCain. McCain has a reputation for being a traditional all-American hero type when, in fact, his life story is anything but that of a common man. He was born into privilege and then married into exorbinant privilege and would not be in the position he’s in today without that unearned privilege. So I think Matt and the media are right to push this story in order to debunk some default and wrong assumptions people have.
Jeffrey: By mass exposure I meant outside of Matt’s blog and into TV ads and mainstream news stories as has happened in the past few days.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 am
With respect to McCain’s carbon footprint, I’d be more worried about a nine car motorcade escorting him to Starbucks than about his multitudinous homes. The fabulously wealthy are always going to have multiple primary and vacation residences, but they’re supposed to have servants go to Starbucks in the econocar to get coffee for them rather than drag themselves and their entire entourage down to Starbucks to get a morning cappuccino.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:40 am
3rd remake:
(At the dinner table)
Mrs. McCain: Would it be easier if there was one number of houses we own?
Sen. John McCain: Yes, dear. One simple easy-to-remember number would be best. (Picks up ketchup bottle as Cindy looks on)
(cut to CNN interview)
Sen. John McCain: 57. My wife and I own 57 homes.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
“Frankly, I think Obama could start hammering on his $230k yearly salary for housekeepers/landscaping. That’s more than five average salaries a year spent on just the upkeep on his real estate. And this is a guy who’s still content to let millions of Americans go without health care?”
I wonder if he pays them the $50 per hour that McCain believes is necessary for Americans to do menial work?
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:45 am
With respect to McCain’s houses more broadly, did anyone see the utterly outrageous “First Read” comment that McCain could have escaped all this controversy with his houses if he’d said “I have one home and we own a few investment properties.”
Jesus Christ, the media is in the tank for McCain. That statement would just be a blatant lie, and it’s one not even the McCain camp is pushing. Good God.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:46 am
Come on, Matt. Enough with the houses.
I’ll buy that. It was hilarious fun all day yesterday, but seems tedious today. We should focus on how this relates to today’s economic circumstances.
Through his purchases, McCain purposely created the real estate bubble with the help of his mortgage-industry de-regulating friend, Phil Gramm. Then, when the bubble collapsed, McCain blamed foreclosures on greedy, whiny middle-class Americans.
Now his Italian-loafer friends are snapping up foreclosed properties, helping many of his near-$5 million friends to become rich.
It’s all connected.
August 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 am
Adam,
If you’ve actually been following along, MY has offered many many posts criticizing McCain in a whole gamut of legitimate political issues addition to these types of personal attacks. If the mainstream media gave a damn about the actual content of candidates policies, this race would have been over before Obama secured the nomination. But that’s not how our world works. Anybody with a clue can see the enormous discrepancy between the two candidates. The priority is to convince the rest of America to vote for Obama. So I’m glad to see MY hitting home on the points that are actually getting through to the public. This is finally an issue where I’m seeing significant negative press from the mainstream media on McCain.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
As far as I’m concerned, apm wins the thread!
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
That per capita carbon footprint is astonishing. Sure some of the low carbon states are blue states, but Idaho is one of the best and it is ultra conservative. You would think that there would be a regional devide on global warming in which senators representing states with large footprints would oppose CO2 reductions and vice versa. You also might assume the opposite, that states with lots of polution would have a stronger environmental movement because they wanted cleaner air. But as I look at the map, no clear pattern emerges.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:05 am
A whole thread on this subject and no troll has yet asked “but what about Al Gore’s carbon footprint?” What’s happened?
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:07 am
Does any of this matter? Just so I know for future elections, what is the number of houses owned, over which someone is no longer qualified to be president?
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am
Not the issue. It’s a combination of GHWB being unfamiliar with bar code readers and Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake.”
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:27 am
Does any of this matter? Just so I know for future elections, what is the number of houses owned, over which someone is no longer qualified to be president?
The issue is a combination of GHWB being unfamiliar with bar code readers and Marie Antoinette’s “Let them eat cake.”
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:31 am
I wouldn’t even give a sh*t how many properties John & Cindy McCain owned (a) if the GOP and its hordes weren’t waging a campaign trying to label the Democrat as some freakish “elitist” ’cause he drinks $1.59 organic tea like they carry at Sam’s Club, that bastion of exclusivity; (b) if I didn’t think it directly affected his outlook on Reaganite lunatic supply-side / tax cut ‘economics’; and (c) if that same GOP horde hadn’t mocked John Kerry for being the property of his elitist rich wife.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Not to bitch, but when doing these maps, it should really be per capita personal footprint: non-power industries shouldn’t count. It’s not really part of my lifestyle that there are 3 paper mills within 100 miles of me, for instance.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 am
John doesn’t know what the family owns? Apparently Cindy wears the pants in that family. Maybe being a big pussy is why McCain became a POW in the first place.
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 am
Nah; McCain became a POW in the first place because he was an incompetent drunken military legacy who crashed pretty much every plane he ever flew and who would never have been allowed to swab the deck, much less fly a plane, if pappy and grandpappy hadn’t been admirals.
McCain’s military “service” to this country was execrable, and anyone other than legacy McCain would have been dishonorably discharged long before he managed to become a POW.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Matt, this is getting ridiculous. No one is accusing him of secretly knowing he had 8 houses but lying about it. The whole point of the houses attack against McCain is that a guy who has so many houses that it is genuinely hard to keep track of them probably doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of the American middle class. That’s why the attack is so effective; it’s not some kind of weird “frame” that Obama is trying to artificially box McCain into — it’s just a banal fact. The idea that it’s unfair to tag McCain with this attack because hey, it’s really true that it’s hard to count his houses! turns the whole thing on its head. (Pardon my French, but if Matt winds up giving McCain credit on this one for being a “straight talker,” I’ll eat a fucking gun.)
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Karl Rove on the importance of filling out forms.
Now, that’s hilarious.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Just an aside – the “GHWB supermarket scanner” story is a distortion, ala Love Canal/Love Story. When Bush said he had never seen one of those, he was talking about a newish, hi-tech 3D scanner that was not widely used.
Whereas McCain really does have so many houses that it’s hard to keep track.
August 22nd, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Maybe I’m shortsighted but I can’t imagine a better way to turn a good political score- “John McCain is so rich & out of touch that he doesn’t even know how many houses he has”- into a dud than by bringing up carbon footprints.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
It’s kind of the point that John McCain owns so many houses he can’t remember them all. It’s confusing we know. But the primary accusation here isn’t that McCain is suffering from dementia, but rather that he is so rich that an average person would have a hard time wrapping his brain around his vast holdings.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
One way McCain could turn this around is to say it doesn’t matter how many houses he has. He’d be the one to make clear, calm decisions on the economy without getting messed up with people’s emotions and stuff.
August 22nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Sometimes I wonder whether you bother to read charts & sources you link to. First, Mc Cain has houses in CA, AZ, & VA; all (according to the map) are average or above in GH gas production.. Secondly, just a quick look at the map shows that winter heating has almost nothing to do with a state’s rating. Thirdly, the very first sentence in the text talks about the importance of amount of industry in GH gas production.
I suspect any candidate for high office in this country would have a carbon footprint at least 10 times that of the average Joe or Jane. Considering Mc Cain’s several houses, he probably tops that list by a mile.
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