Sure, John McCain can't remember how many houses he owns.

But don't forget that he also owns at least one parking lot worth nearly five times the average American home:

The McCains also claim a family ... parking lot.
...
A pricey parking lot at that. It's valued at more than $1M, according to the senator's 2007 financial disclosure report, and is listed as: "Assets and Income of Cindy McCain and dependent children."

So the McCains own multiple actual homes, and Cindy McCain and her children own a parking lot that costs more than four times the $218K median 2007 U.S. home price.

How many parking lots do you own?

Listen:

As Jonathan pointed out earlier, this all just serves as a reminder that John McCain is grossly out of touch with the current state of our economy.

And we're on offense now - isn't it awesome?

Update [2008-8-21 14:33:29 by Jonathan Singer]: Just to add a thought, I have played the audio a few times in the last hour, listening to it over and over again, and I'll tell you the problem with McCain's statements is not just that he couldn't figure out how many houses his family owns, it's that he was so cavalier is waving off the question -- as if he didn't know that it's absurd for someone not to know the answer to such a question. Really, who needs staff to be able to say how many houses they own?

I'm not sure what McCain's definition of rich is, but in my book you instantly qualify if you can't remember how many #&^#@%* houses you own:

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.

"I think - I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told us in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where - I'll have them get to you."

The correct answer is at least four, located in Arizona, California and Virginia, according to his staff. Newsweek estimated this summer that the couple owns at least seven properties.

I suppose in our "nation of whiners," it's uncouth to give an exact number.

Alternately, perhaps McCain can't remember because they're all owned by Cindy.

Ealier Jerome mentioned Obama's lack-of-blog-outreach problem, and I wanted to add a little color to the discussion of why such outreach is crucial.

As noted, Obama's team has really nailed down the field/finance side of what internet tools and strategy can do. Volunteers are empowered to knock on more doors. Fundraising goals got scaled up. All the quantifiable metrics of a traditional campaign have improved.

But as an example of the other half of what the internet can do, roughly "communications/policy/research" in campaign shorthand, look back at the fight a few years ago to save Social Security.

In order to sell private accounts as an attractive policy solution, George Bush and the Republican machine first needed to convince the American public that Social Security had a huge problem that needed fixing. So they started telling the public that Social Security was in crisis and insolvent. If we didn't do something now, they told us, we'd all be eating cat food by Christmas. And they were looking to raise $100 million to fund the effort (click that link and check out the post's author).

At first, Bush's scheme started to catch on - traditional media outlets like the Washington Post, and even some Democrats, started internalizing and repeating the talking point that something was wrong with Social Security. The situation was dire: if Republicans succeeded in that first crucial step - convincing Americans that Social Security was broken - they would have an open door to introduce a convenient privitization "solution."

But the Democrats drew a line in the sand. In his book "The Good Fight," Harry Reid talks about the various pieces needed to save Social Security: pushes for intra-party discipline, outreach to allies, and a country-wide tour touting the benefits of the program.

Sites like talkingpointsmemo.com and MyDD led the charge to beat back the lies about Social Security. BlogPac's "There Is No Crisis" was born. When traditional media outlets adapted the right-wing talking points about insolvency, blogs went after them to speak objectively and give the facts. Democratic surrogates took to the airwaves and reminded Americans of Social Security's history and its solvent economics. And when certain Democrats wavered on privitization, Air America hosts like Sam Seder and Al Franken encouraged listeners to call their Congressmen and push for a commitment against the scheme. At that moment, we were firing on all cylinders, together, as a movement.

It worked. The Republican plan to convince Americans that Social Security was a problem in need a privitization failed. The biggest Republican legislative priority had lost, but only when Democratic insiders and outsiders worked together. If elected Democrats and their allies, both online and off, share a strategy and a message, we can win.

So how might the lessons of that fight apply to John McCain and this election? How could progressive allies help bat down phony conventional wisdom?

Update [2008-8-21 5:57:58 by Josh Orton]: As pointed out, I was remiss in shorthanding the huge work our allies at Americans United and organized labor (outside groups?) did to mobilize people and help with pushback during the Social Security fight. Blogs and other online allies were not the only players. Certainly adds to the notion of "all cylinders."

Well this is just great news. Keith over at DKos:

Rachel Gets Her Own MSNBC Show
by Keith Olbermann
Tue Aug 19, 2008 at 02:05:19 PM PDT

Happy Now?
The network will be formally announcing this tomorrow, but I am pleased to inform you in this fully authorized leak, that as of Monday, September 8, our mutual friend Ms. Maddow will become host of her own show, on MSNBC, at 9 PM Eastern Time.

In the last four years, not everything in progressive media has gone well. Air America continues to die a slow death by dumping progressive talent and replacing it with milquetoast offerings. The strong netroots-establishment message coordination from the days of the Social Security fight doesn't exist during this election cycle at the Presidential level.

However, the rise of Keith Olbermann and now Rachel Maddow are true bright spots. Rachel is one of the smartest people I know, a great broadcaster, and an all-around cool person. So she'll certainly bring light to important stories otherwise ignored by everyone else in cable news. But Rachel will also draw an audience not necessarily predisposed to liberalism. With Rachel on the air, viewers will get the opportunity to watch real news instead of bluster - and I bet a sizable number will jump at the chance.

(Rachel says hello during a photo shoot at Air America in early 2005)

Congrats Rachel!

Marine Officer Rob Miller is running to unseat Bush Republican Joe Wilson in South Carolina's 2nd CD. In this R+8.9 district, Wilson's approval has been pegged well below 50%.

So when Wilson commenced a district bus tour, Miller pounced, releasing a press release tying Wilson to Bush - tagging Wilson's trip as a "tour for the status quo."

Apparently, Wilson's team wasn't paying much attention, because they went ahead and pasted Miller's release all over the front of his website. I suppose the alternative is that Wilson's just quite proud to be a 95% Bush man. Maybe we'll never know.

Lacking a distant home state in which to pretend he's not a Republican <cough>Oregon<cough>, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman will be forced to walk across the street to his own party's national convention:

Coleman said convention attendance is a simple election-year decision for many Senators who are facing tough re-election battles.

"So I think those who come here will have an extraordinary time. But the colleagues who don't come are staying at home only because they have tough races. If the convention wasn't in St. Paul, I wouldn't be at the convention," Coleman said.

I just don't think Coleman's being creative enough. Couldn't Norm schedule a week-long series of town halls up in Bemidji or something?

Update [2008-8-18 14:23:28 by Todd Beeton]:Seems like a good opportunity to update our Will They Go? tally. We'd already had Coleman in the "going" category but the latest is, as Jonathan reported on Wednesday, that Pat Roberts will not.

On the fence:
• Gordon Smith (inc-OR)
  
• Roger Wicker (inc-MS)
  
• John Sununu (inc-NH)
  
• Pat Roberts (inc-KS)
  
• Jim Inhofe (inc-OK)
  
• Big Bad John Cornyn (inc-TX)
  
• John Kennedy (challenger-LA)
  
• Steve Pearce (challenger-NM)

  Going:

• Norm Coleman
  
• Mitch McConnell
  
• Jim Gilmore

• Big Bad John Cornyn (inc-TX)
  
  

  Not going:

• Ted Stevens
  
• Susan Collins
  
• Bob Schaffer
  
• Elizabeth Dole
  
• Gordon Smith
  
• Pat Roberts
  

As Tim Pugmire at MPR notes, that makes it 8 sitting GOP senators who will sit out attending their own party's convention including 3 retiring senators Hagel, Allard and Craig. We don't include them in our tally since they're not running for re-election, but it is notable all the same.

A couple items to look through this morning:

• President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan steps down to avoid impeachment.

• Paul Krugman says that if Obama gets aggressive with economic populism, he could win in a landslide.

• PPP has McCain pulling even with Obama in Ohio.

• Obama is organizing circles around McCain in North Carolina.

• Tom Matzzie aims his sights on big GOP donors.

What other stories are out there?