John McCain

Two news "events" have recently been spotlighted in the presidential race: first, that John McCain keeps referring to the non-existent country "Czechoslovakia", and second, that John McCain doesn't know how many houses he and his wife own. Neither of these are really news-worthy in the sense that deserve more than a passing mention - in fact, I doubt they would have lasted one news cycle if this wasn't an election year.

But being as it is, the Obama campaign and the media has made mention of these two items frequently over the past two weeks. Common extrapolations of the "don't know how many houses I have" McCain quote is typically the Democrats emphasizing that McCain is a "rich guy" that doesn't relate to the American populace, and that the Republicans are calling the Democrats out for playing low politics.

I don't buy any of that - it's spin on both sides, but then again, when is it not? I see these two quotes from McCain as the passing remarks that they are. But THAT is where the real story lies. That fact that McCain doesn't know that Czechoslovakia peacefully separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, and that he doesn't know how many houses he owns reveal (to me) a man who isn't fully plugged in. Now to be fair, I can only tell you that Czechoslovakia fact because I just looked it up - but I'm a Biology teacher, not running for President! This is like Bush mispronouncing half the countries in the world and the word "nuclear". The second quote is even more disturbing - it shows me a man who is not in control of his own life! I know that he is rich and his wife inherited umpteen millions of dollars, but not knowing how many houses you own?? Ridiculous! That last quote is especially damning in the light of the current state of the economy, when many people are losing their homes (albeit deservedly). McCain may be an experienced politician, but nobody would ever claim that a politician has a good sense of reality, and these two remarks fully support that idea.