Olbermann: McCain Campaign ‘Apparently Panicked’

As Keith Olbermann put it on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last night, “Elections rarely turn now on deep meaning or intercontinental ballistic missile treaties or even or war and peace. They turn on symbolism, and John McCain just fell into a big, giant, steaming pile of symbolism.”

In a recent interview with Mike Allen of right-leaning Politico.com, John McCain was stumped by what should have been a very simple question:

ALLEN: How many houses do you and Mrs. McCain have?

MCCAIN: I think … I’ll have my staff get to you. I’m not … [garbled] … It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you …

ALLEN: Okay! Thank you!

The Obama campaign has been taking heat lately for not firing back at McCain, whose campaign has seemed to become slimier and nastier by the day. But Obama’s response to McCain’s pose of ignorance about the number of condos he and Cindy owns was, in a word, rapid:

“This puzzled me. I was confused as to what he meant. Then there was another interview, where somebody asked John McCain, ‘How many houses do you have?’ He said, ‘I’m not sure I’ll have to check with my staff.’ True quote! ‘I’m not sure, I’ll have to check with my staff.’ So they asked his staff and he said, ‘at least four.’ ‘At least four.’

Now think about that. I guess if you think that being rich means you’ve got to make $5 million, and if you don’t know how many houses you have, then it’s not surprising that you might think the economy was fundamentally strong. But if you’re like me, and you got one house, or you were 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.

By the way, the answer is, John McCain has seven homes. There’s just a fundamental gap of understanding between John McCain’s world and what people are going through every single day here in America. You don’t have to be a Nobel Prize-laureate economist, you just have to have a little bit of a sense of what ordinary people are going through to understand that we can’t afford eight more years or four more years or one more year of the failed economic policies that George Bush has put in place.”

The Obama campaign also quickly released an Internet ad, “Seven Houses,” (right) that sought to capitalize on McCain’s gaffe.

As Olbermann pointed out, McCain’s gaffe must have struck a nerve within his own campaign:

The McCain campaign apparently panicked, issuing three separate statements, throwing the kitchen sink at Obama today — tossing in Obama’s $4 million book sales, Hawaiian vacation, arugula, guns and religion, offshore drilling, Obama’s “million dollar mansion,” singular, and resurrected Tony Rezko in a new ad, despite the fact that Obama has never been accused of any wrongdoing regarding Rezko.

McCain’s campaign spokesman describing McCain as “not an argula-eating, pointy headed professor-type … [but] a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years — in prison.”

It’s too early to tell whether McCain’s apparent cluelessness about how many homes he owns will become a momentary gaffe or a campaign crippling “macaca” moment. Much depends on how it is played in the media, whom McCain has called his “base.” (Next time you hear the tape of the interview, notice how eagerly the Politico’s Mike Allen moves on from the question in order to cut McCain some slack.)

The story got a full round of coverage on the networks last night as well as on cable news, and it was also featured above the fold on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times. Still, it remains to be seen if the newsers will run with it as they did, say, Howard Dean’s “scream” or George Bush Sr.’s apparent cluelessness about how supermarket check-out systems work.

How this gaffe plays out also depends on how it resonates with moderate independents. According to a spate of recent polls, this wishy-washy voter block has been leading the trend away from Obama toward McCain, thereby taking the destiny of the nation into their hands again as they did in 2000 and 2004 with dire results.

These voters aren’t likely to be bothered by McCain’s wealth, just as they weren’t phased by George Bush’s aristocratic background. On the other hand, they probably will not like either of the only two explanations for the gaffe — that McCain actually knew the answer but was trying to cover it up — or, worse, that he truly couldn’t remember how many condos and houses he and Cindy own.

Even if the story goes nowhere, it has accomplished something that will work in Obama’s favor. From now on, anytime the McCain campaign calls Obama an “arugula-eating, pointy headed professor-type” elitist, they’ll be reminded that their guy is so rich he can’t even keep up with how many houses he owns.