If you don’t know how many houses you have …

… then either you’re mental processes are slipping, or you have too many.

A bit of Obama’s speech referencing McCain’s most recent (and a few others) gaffes on the economy (emphasis mine):

But the fact of the matter is that John McCain is offering more of the same. He said a while back that he thought that we had made great progress economically during the years that George Bush has been in office. Now, that raised some eyebrows. Great progress economically. Who is he talking to? And it turns out that you get a sense of who he’s talking to because some of you saw the Saddleback Forum with Rick Warren. He was asked, well, who do you consider rich? And he thought about it for a second, I don’t know. Maybe if you make $5 million. $5 million, then you’re rich. Which means, I guess, if you’re only making $3 million a year then you’re middle class. I guess that’s what he meant.

His top economic adviser said the other day that Americans should stop complaining; they’ve become a nation of whiners. That all these economic problems everybody is talking about is just a mental recession. And if you would just change your mind, everything would be okay. Somebody’s been laid off, their plant’s closed and gone to Mexico or China, change your mind. It’s all good. Then, yesterday, he was asked again, what do you think about the economy? He says, Well, I think the economy is fundamentally strong; said the economy is fundamentally strong. Now, this puzzled me. I was confused as to what he meant.

But then there was another interview – this is yesterday, same day – where somebody asked John McCain, how many houses do you have? And 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’ve got one house, or you are 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. And by the way, the answer is John McCain has seven homes.

So 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.

McCain is, I believe, the 4th richest man in the Senate, a club that generally is made up of pretty wealthy guys. (Obama’s not hurting for money, but at least he made his fortune writing a book.) Unbuttoned collar and folksy ways or not, it’s unclear to me how McCain can portray himself as “just plain folk” when he’s not sure how many houses he has (though I’m pretty sure none of them are facing foreclosure).