Why Is Anyone Still Listening?

This is beginning to just be sad. McCain and his campaign seem absolutely dead-set on aping the Rudy Giuliani technique of constantly referencing one past incident as a universal panacea against legitimate criticism, foolish political mis-steps, and pretty much any event that occurs across the face of the planet that he doesn't like (I bet Wallace Spearmon wouldn't have stomped on someone else's lane on Wednesday if he'd known McCain is a former POW; that would make him a traitor).

Of course, we all know how well Rudy's 9-11 Tourette's worked out for him ("None of this worries me. September 11, those were times I was worried."), so I'm happy for McCain to keep going. Honestly, I don't even care how many houses the man owns [1], mainly because people made such a big hairy deal about how much money Edwards had during the primaries. At that time the left kept insisting (correctly) that having money and not giving a damn about the poor is not the same thing. It was true then and it's true now. I don't think McCain is bad for the poor [2] because he has more houses than he can count (it may or may not be into double figures, apparently the search is ongoing), but because his policies and his voting record makes his dismissal of the have-nots (and frankly the have-some-I-guess-but-still-finding-times-toughs) abundantly clear.

All of which was obvious before the house issue. This doesn't make a difference to anything, beyond being a rather dismal reflection of how badly McCain's campaign seems to be at adapting to new situations and emerging memes.

Update: as one might expect, davenoon makes the same point with considerably more panache.

[1] Or to be more accurate, the amount his wife owns. Not that I care about that either, really. I just think it's interesting that when criticised about how many houses he has his first response is to accuse Obama of attacking his wife. Which seems to me to be a hell of a stretch. As far as I can see, McCain got hit, flung himself behind his wife, and then started shouting "Leave Cindy McCain ALOOOOOOOOONE!" whilst burying his head in her skirt.

[2] In addition to pretty much any other American citizen who doesn't own an oil-rig, along with every other citizen of this planet; plus plants and animals and rainbows and Christmas, as well.