Let’s hope this is the beginning of Obama hitting his stride. His message today seems to have been that John McCain is so rich that he’s completely clueless as to what troubles Americans are going through economically. He touched on McCain’s saying that the economy is “fundamentally sound,” that things have been OK under Bush, and on Phil Gramm’s “Nation of Whiners” and “Mental Recession” quotes. Then he quoted McCain from the Rick Warren event, where he said that “rich” is when you make $5 million, and wound it up with the punch line that McCain, when asked, said he couldn’t remember how many homes he owns.

Obama on the trail:

And his new ad:

The message: Obama’s not the elitist, John McCain is. And the punch was delivered with power, not to mention McCain’s own words. This is where Obama needs to go. This is the track Obama needs to get on and stay on until the election.

I mean, really, imagine that–you have to check with your staff to find out how many homes you own,and you think that anyone making less than $5 million a year is middle class. I mean, wow.

However, I think I’m going to have to give McCain a break here. I don’t believe that McCain was really ignorant of how many homes he owns. I think he was simply lying. Why? Because he knows what the answer is, and that is at least seven homes (what Obama’s ad claims), maybe more. And if a reporter asks him how many homes he owns, he doesn’t want to say “Seven, and that’s why Obama’s an elitist.” So he used the normal dodge when politicians (usually under investigation for something) want to avoid answering something self-incriminating, namely that he couldn’t remember and would have to check, hoping that (a) people would forget, or (b) at least his staff, and not he himself, would have to answer the question. Unfortunately, that instinct led him to say something that sounded even worse, that he had so many homes that he lost count.

His staff, reportedly, came back with the classic weasel answer: “at least four.” They know full well it’s at least seven, but by saying “at least” they can claim they weren’t lying. They also undoubtedly had a conference to figure out what number they could pitch which sounds high enough to be credible but low enough so he doesn’t sound too outrageously rich and elitist.

I think that McCain was also lying about the $5 million-being-rich thing too. I think he knows full well that, at the very least, a million minimum is actually rich–I don’t think he’s that stupid and out of touch–but he also knew that if he answered with a lower number, then he’d be hit with questions about how he wants to give so many of his tax cuts to the rich. $5 million is probably beyond a cutoff point his staff made him remember where he can say that the majority of his tax cuts, counted in some arcane fashion, go to people below that number, or something along those lines.

So, in order not to look elitist, John McCain instead comes across looking even more elitist, and a fool to boot. And that’s what Obama took advantage of today.

McCain’s counter-attack continued: Obama makes four mill a year, loves Arugula, and vacations in Hawaii! Yeah, except that this is old hat from McCain, a retread that people have heard a million times before–so it’s lost its impact.

Also, McCain undercut his own attacks: by noting that Obama makes $4 million a year, he makes the point that Obama isn’t an elitist–because $4 million, according to McCain, is not “rich”! You see, you have to make $5 million to be rich–so Obama’s just a regular guy!

Obama definitely wins today’s round–and if he keeps on this tack, he’ll win a lot more down the road.