The talking point of the day: Sen. John McCain does not know how many houses he owns.

In a classic gaffe, he tells a reporter to check with his staff; he just doesn’t know. The McCain campaign says “at least” four. Newsweek estimates seven.

Politico has the story ^[1] that everyone is linking to.

Almost immediately Obama and his favorite surrogate, Gov. Kaine, went on the attack. Here’s Obama’s attack:

At a campaign appearance in Chester, Va., on Thursday morning, Obama said: “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! …

“If you’re like me and you’ve got one house – or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so that they don’t lose their home — you might have a different perspective. 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.”

And the McCain response, also from Politico:

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said in response: “Does 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 really want to get into a debate about houses? Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula and thinks regular people ‘cling’ to guns and religion in the face of economic hardship really want to have a debate about who’s in touch with regular Americans?”

Okay, standard political boilerplate on both sides.

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…

Second, McCain is not the richest U.S. Senator. And not the second richest either. Does John Kerry know how many houses his wife owns? What about Ted Kennedy? Or West Virginia’s senator John D. Rockefeller IV? People who lives in glass houses and forget how many glass houses they live in…

For better or for worse, the senate is a rich man’s club. This is largely due to campaign finance laws, which limits how much other people can give you but doesn’t limit how much you (or your wife) can give to you, and partly due to a kind of “House of Lords” tradition. (Of course, McCain is to blame for last two iterations of “campaign-finance reform.)

Finally, 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.