Straight Talk Bus Crashes/ House Inventory Update

Let me start by saying I never had this problem~ keeping track of how many houses I own. It's always been "none" or one. I don't even know if a house you are buying, but is actually owned by the bank even counts?
But having multiple dwelling, holdings, rentals, carriage houses, and hired help staffer quarters, has sure turned into an issue for John McSame.

Furthermore, I will attempt to weave 3 stories together, so bear with me.

#1 story:

TPM did their homework to try to help John get his home inventory number together.
" The Official TPM Tally: The McCains Own Eight To Eleven Houses
By Eric Kleefeld and Lila Shapiro - August 22, 2008, 10:05AM

And the grand total of houses the McCains own is...
...anywhere from eight to eleven homes, depending on how you count it. (But wait! There's more.....)

The McCain campaign claims the Arizona Senator has four residences: Condos in Arlington, VA., and Coronado, CA., the main McCain residence in Phoenix, AZ., and a ranch in Sedona, AZ. A McCain adviser says the rest of the McCain properties are "some investment properties and things like that."

Not so much.

Here's our official list:

Arlington, VA: The McCains have a three-bedroom condo in Arlington, Virginia, for when McCain is in the DC area. It is valued at nearly $850,000. Total: One.

Arizona: Here's an example of how hard it is to keep track of how many houses McCain owns: The Arizona Republic reported in 2006 that the McCains bought two adjacent condominiums for $4.66 million, so they could combine them into a single mega-condo of over 6,000 square feet, for use as their main residence in Arizona. That's either one or two more. Total: Two to three.

Arizona: Cindy's corporation later bought another condo in the same building as the mega-condo, only on a different floor. Total: Three to four.

Coronado, CA: Then there are the two vacation condos they own in Coronado, California, which total $4.7 million. They initially just bought the first one, but Cindy decided to buy a second when her children began using the first one much more frequently. "So I bought another one," Cindy told Vogue. Total: Five to six.

Sedona, AZ: The McCains own a lot of three houses in their "Hidden Valley Ranch" area of Sedona, totaling over $1,081,000 in value, according to county records. This is the rustic location where McCain often entertains reporters and other guests. You can count this as anywhere from one to three houses -- one of them is a main residence, and the others are for guests and servants. Total: Six to nine.

La Jolla, CA: There's also their property in La Jolla, California, valued at over $1 million, where Cindy's aunt reportedly lives. (Fun fact: This is the same property for which the McCains were delinquent on their property taxes.) Total: Seven to 10.

Phoenix, AZ: Cindy's family trust also owns a $700,000 loft in Phoenix, which was purchased for use by their daughter Meghan after she graduated from college. As GQ put it, "the interior looks like a spaceship furnished by West Elm." Total: Eight to 11.

As it happens, there's still more. Cindy also owns other properties through her family corporations. But many of these are rental properties for homes and businesses. We've decided to take the conservative road, and not count rental properties towards the total, as they aren't really homes -- they're investments or sources of income.

So, depending on how you count it, the grand total of homes owned by the McCains is...

Eight to 11. At a combined value of $12,991,000."

Plus other sundry holdings.

Well thank you TPM for doing this research. The answer remains elusive-- still real life mimicks iteslf:

Story #2

McCain's Bus, the *Straight Talk Express* crashed into a minivan in early August, in Miami.
Ironically, the Straight Talk Express had trouble turning right.
The irony of the two stories is not lost, McCain has so many houses, he can't even answer the question of how many they own (they should count rentals & income property too).... come clean, Mr. Straight Talk Express...
Or change the name of your bus to the *______________________*.?????????



The Miami Herald reports that McCain's bus "was involved in a car accident with a mini-van when both tried turning right" onto the same street. No one was injured.

McCain himself was apparently not onboard the bus at the time. The Herald reports that the bus was delivering Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to a campaign event. (Lieberman- literally on the republican bus!)

US News made this comment with an advertising tie-in:

"Was your minivan recently crushed by an advocate of offshore drilling? Search for a replacement from the best minivans list at U.S. News. With five new minivans achieving near perfect safety scores, they're practically politician-proof."

Story #3
Check out the bumper sticker on the back of McCains Motor Coach




So maybe I should just lighten up & host the following competition:

Rename John McCain's Motor Coach campaign bus!