The whole house attack was/is silly. Why bother with that stuff when you can use issues?

Is it me or did that "definition" not make any sense?

And here I thought politics and governance didn't even live in the same zip code, only visited with each other when one was in trouble and needed the other.

She went further and said its ironic that Obama is doing this because she agreed with him  when he criticized other politicians for seizing on some of his "gaffes" and how the American people were tired of that sort of "silly season" stuff. She didn't understand why he would be doing some of the same stuff unless he was desperate.

I guess when you try to pretend you are above politics, then start acting like a politician, you come across as desperate to the vast majority of the American public.

The answer so far is: Obama by a mile.

Reporters and pundits have had time to do their homework by now. It turns out that McCain is on the "straight talk" side of the controversy; BO08 is stretching some, distorting some, and lying some; and big media is right there with Obama -- stretching, distorting, embellishing and lying.

In plain talk, McCain has 3 or 4 homes ("home" being a residential space you can and do access at will where you keep some personal effects on an ongoing basis) -- a Phoenix condo, a Sedona ranch, a NoVa condo, and a Coronado beachfront condo ... the 4th being iffy in the count, as it's not clear McCain frequents it (but we'll include it to be comprehensive).

Obama has 2 -- the Chicago house and the Capitol Hill rental (described variously as "apartment" or "condo"). It's a rental, but it's "home" -- even though he and Michelle hotel it when she's in town.

A literal answer from McCain would have been misleading. Mike Allen's query specified "houses" (which would limit it to the Sedona ranch residence) and used the highly nonspecific verb "have", rather than "own" or occupy". McCain properly offered to have staff detail a precise answer.

Needling McCain for "not being able to remember" is clearly in foul territory. There's no consensus on the number -- not by the press, not by the Obama campaign or allied organizations, not by the left blogosphere -- even with all the facts on the table. Even the number of "residences" at Sedona is pegged at 1, 3, 4, or 5 by reporters who have been entertained there.

The two adjacent units combined into one before the McCains moved in? Double counting. The condo Cindy's aged aunt lives in? Not John's home. The one his daughter lived in (now on the market)? Staff quarters and guest bungalows on the ranch? Neither is the beachfront unit Cindy's relatives keep occupied? Those aren't "home" to John.