US:BARACK OBAMA has accused John McCain of being out of touch with ordinary Americans after the Republican admitted that he did not know how many houses he owned.
Mr McCain and his wife Cindy, a beer heiress with a personal fortune of more than $100 million, own seven homes but in an interview with the Politico newspaper, the Republican said he was not sure how many there were. "I think I'll have my staff get to you," he said. "It's condominiums where I'll have them get to you."
Last week, Mr McCain joked that an annual income above about $5 million (€3.37 million) might define someone as rich and Mr Obama yesterday seized on both remarks as he condemned the Republican for claiming that the US economy was fundamentally healthy.
"Think about that," Mr Obama told supporters in Virginia.
"I guess if you think that being rich means you've got to make $5 million, and if you don't know how many houses you have, then it's not surprising that you might think the economy is fundamentally strong!"
Mr McCain's campaign, which has sought for weeks to portray Mr Obama as an elitist, shot back with an attack on the Democrat's comfortable lifestyle.
"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?" the campaign said in a statement.
The increasingly sharp tone on both sides reflects a dramatic narrowing of the presidential race as the two parties face into their national conventions and each candidate chooses his vice-presidential running mate.
"Now is the time where people are going to start paying attention, leading up into the convention, and we've got to make sure that people understand the choices that are at stake," Mr Obama told Time magazine yesterday.
"Over the last several weeks, I think what we've been getting from John McCain has been non-stop attacks against me and my character, which have distracted people from the issues.
"What I want to do is make sure that people understand: here are the choices . . . You've got a candidate who is presenting policies that are identical to what George Bush has been doing for the last eight years. [And] you've got somebody who intends to fundamentally change those policies so that they work for the average American family." In his interview with the Politico, Mr McCain declined to criticise Mr Bush.