I just got back from the health food store, where I was asking people, "Do you know how many houses you own?" A rich person (someone who makes over $5 million/year) like John McCain might be surprised to learn that 100% of the people who participated in the poll said, "Yes," they did know how many houses they own.
Wow!
For me, McCain's inability to answer the question is about more than being out of touch, it's a question of competence. Years ago, TV stations would ask this question, "It's ten o'clock, do you know where your children are?" The implication was that if you didn't know where your children were at ten o'clock, you were an incompetent parent.
30 years ago I worked on a musical about marijuana that proffered a variation of the TV question. Just before the start of the second act, the house lights would dim out and in the pitch black theater an announcer would ask, "It's ten o'clock, do you know what time it is?"
Here are some other questions McCain might have trouble answering.
Hey John, it's 2008, do you know:
... how many international crises there have been in this century?
... that the Bush tax agenda you want to perpetuate is destroying the middle class?
... Czechoslovakia no longer exists?
... Iraq and Pakistan do not share a border?
I'm sure there are a lot more. Have fun thinking them up. Even better, grab a clip board, head to your local mall, and start asking complete strangers, "Excuse me, I'm taking a poll, do you know how many houses you own?"