I find it extremely annoying that the question of how many houses John McCain owns would be of any more interest to anyone than how many shares of stock he owns, how many cars, how many suits, how many websites, or how many guns.

Anyway, when asked the question, McCain said he wasn't sure ("I think -- I'll have my staff get to you..." "It's condominiums where -- I'll have them get to you.") -- not because he is senile or out of touch as the Obama campaign is implying in its ads, but because he apparently doesn't own any houses.

They are all in his wife's name. But even then, it's not clear to reporters who investigated how many there might be:

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.

A politico analysis later in the day found McCain's family owns at least eight properties, according to property and tax records, as well as interviews.

a liar if he said "four";

a rich gigolo living off his wife if he said "my wife owns four houses and I own zero"; or

a man out of touch with his own financial realities for not knowing.

I suppose if McCain had really wanted to get cute, he could have winked at the reporter and said "depends on who owns the word 'own'," or "I don't own my own house."

If they really are in his wife's name, perhaps he's what amounts to a tenant at will. In common parlance, a "crasher." And isn't that just a nice way of saying "homeless"?

Which means that the question becomes, is America really ready to elect a homeless man president?

Shouldn't we instead elect "a guy who made more than $4 million last year, just got back from vacation on a private beach in Hawaii and bought his own million-dollar mansion with the help of a convicted felon"? "A guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people 'cling' to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship"?

I don't expect McCain to make a wisecrack about being homeless, though. The "homeless" have become one of America's sacred cows. (We like to watch them wander about as if to provide a source of sanctimonious pontification -- as if poor personal hygiene, schizophrenia, and substance abuse are a housing crisis.)

The people who obsess over how many houses McCain or his wife might own are people who buy into the notion that private property is somehow immoral.

I know I've said this before, but think about it. People hate (or feel guilty about) unearned wealth. But unless it was earned by crime, property is not immoral.

Unfortunately, millions of unthinking people are conditioned to believe it is. What I'm having trouble understanding is why that wouldn't that make McCain the more virtuous candidate for not actually owning any houses.

There is a distinction between "unowned" and "unearned," is there not?

Hmmm....

(Perhaps I'm wasting my time trying to analyze why unthinking people think what they think.)

UPDATE: Recognizing the perils of the question, Richard Miniter has an excellent analysis of the "how many houses" nonsense, and he concludes that McCain should have just said his wife owns them all:

Here's two truths that the McCain campaign can't say: one, it is Cindy McCain's money and not his. Therefore, he doesn't know how she spends it. It is possible, even likely, that the senator has not even been to all of these houses. Most likely they are investment properties, which have full-time tenants. As for the homes that the senator and his wife actually use... let's say it is three. If McCain says three and it turns out there are two or three or four more investment properties, then it looks like he lied about something he should automatically know the answer to. He is too smart a politician to guess. So the classic senatorial "check with the staff" dodge. Maybe Cindy's accountant knows...

[...]

...McCain had one good answer open to him when asked how many houses he owns: None. My wife owns them all.

A lot of guys can identify with that.