Thursday in the Presidential race morphed into a battle of the houses, as a John McCain gaffe gave Barack Obama an opening to attack. Team McCain though reached into its bag for some housing related jabs of their own.
What started it all was an answer that McCain gave a reporter, which seemed like it was offered up on a silver platter to Team Obama.
"McCain unsure how many houses he owns," was the head-shaking headline on Politico.com on Thursday, detailing how McCain said to ask his staff how many places he and his wealthy wife have.
"The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff," said the story. Others say it's more than ten. The Obama Camp quickly put out an ad that said it was seven.
Whatever the number is, really doesn't matter. It's something that Obama can use to portray McCain as being out of touch (economically) with the American people.
Remember the other day, when McCain joked that to be rich, your income needed to be $5 million a year.
It didn't take long for the media, which many liberals claim is biased in favor of McCain, to jump on this story.
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As I told Neal Boortz, almost anyone can put out a shingle tonight for "Frick & Frack Campaign Strategists" and come up with some good lines riffing on that stuff. Let's give it a shot.
"A lot of you out there are struggling just to make ends meet...Just to put food on the table and to put your kids through school.....You know how many houses you own. But John McCain has so many, he can't remember!
"Who do you think is going to do a better job for you in the White House?"
That's a hanging curveball for Democrats.
If you listened to me and Neal Boortz yesterday, you could tell the whole thing was getting under the Talkmaster's skin, since he frowns on class warfare type arguments.
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Once Obama mentioned his own house, then the McCain camp opened a drawer in the Chicago office and pulled out the file slugged "Tony Rezko." They quickly had their own ad on the air to fight back.
The McCain probably realized pretty quick that they needed to hit back hard, not because this is the biggest issue that could doom him or anything, but because it's so easily understood by anyone.
"How many houses do you own?" Pretty basic stuff. And a way for Democrats to portray McCain as Mr. Elite.
Of course, McCain has had success in portraying Obama as elite, aloof and a Messiah like leader who doesn't really stand for anything. "The One" as McCain staffers refer to the Democratic candidate.
Think about it - that ad with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears images had a big impact on this race, even if the Chattering Class expressed their discontent, because it wasn't talking about issues of import to the voter.
Sometimes races like this can be won because of a simple mis-step or a line of attack that sticks - rightly or wrongly.
A lot of things will happen over the next week. Obama will name his running mate, the Democratic Convention will begin, there will be some Hillary Clinton stuff and then we'll have the Obama acceptance speech in a week's time.
If the "McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns" thing lives through all of that, then it will be something that McCain will have thrown at him for awhile.
Last week the Obama people got all riled up about Ralph Reed helping out John McCain for a fundraiser in Atlanta. Most people reading this blog probably couldn't tell you the name of the high profile conservative group that Reed organized twenty plus years ago which made him a political name. That attack didn't move the ball much at all for Obama.
But lots of people can tell you how many houses they own.
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