Houston, we have LIFT-OFF!! Wall to Wall coverage and the reviews are in - ahem, not so good:
► "A field day for Obama"
► "Explosive"
► "This will break through. This will become Late Nite material"
► "Looks like McSame can't count that high"
► "McSame's Supermarket scanner moment"
► "Blood in the water"
► "These words will haunt him"
► "A seminal moment"
Transcript
CBS: Tonight, Barack Obama has chosen a running mate, but who?
Barack: I made the selection, and that's all you're going to get.
CBS: And John McSame, caught off guard.
I'm Maggie Rodriquez. Good evening. Katie is on assignment.
The presidential campaign came down to this today-- a question one candidate wouldn't answer and a question the other candidate couldn't answer. John McSame couldn't answer a question most Americans would find simple-- how many homes do own?
Barack Obama wouldn't reveal his running mate, though he confirmed he has now made a choice. So that's where we'll begin tonight with Dean Reynolds covering the Obama campaign.
Just as Obama has begun to stress a more populist message he heard news of an assist for make his point when John McSame couldn’t response to a simple question: How many houses do you and Mrs. McSame have?
McSame’s campaign says he owns at least four homes, but it turns out the real number, according to an independent watchdog project, is at least seven homes. Worth in the neighborhood of $13 million, they are scattered from coast to coast and they put McSame, whose wife inherited a $100 million fortune, well ahead of past Presidents in terms of homes owned.
The McSame campaign, caught flat-footed by their candidate's remark and fighting to get the news media on to a different story, fired up its own pid response ad, suggesting Obama purchased his home in a deal with a shady chicago influence peddler.
What's more, argued McSame's people, Obama made $4 million last year and is in no position to complain about McSame's wealth, except even by McSame's own definition, $4 million would not make Obama rich.
Interviewer: Define rich.
McSame: How about $5 million. ( Laughter )
CBS: Of obvious concern to Republicans is that the discussion of McSame's wealth comes as many voters are dealing with foreclosures and high gasoline prices.
The McSame campaign is clearly nervous that their candidate's own words will now come back to haunt him.
Blitzer: Let's continue to see what's going on.
Jessica Yellin, she's in Virginia watching all of this unfold.
Another day we heard Senator Obama really once again going after Senator McSame on this and other issues.
Yellin: That's right, Wolf.
Barack Obama is having a field day with some of McSame's recent comments, not just the house gaffe that Ed was just reporting on, but also McSame's comments at the Saddleback forum last weekend, when he was asked, "How much money is rich?" McSame said $5 million.
For Barack Obama, it's a gift from John McSame.
Barack: 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 was fundamentally strong.
Yellin: The Obama campaign is convinced this message is on the money, and they're taking it all the way to the bank. They've already released this ad.
Narrator: When asked how many houses he owns, McSame lost track. He couldn't remember.
Well, it's seven. Seven houses. And here's one house America can't afford to let John McSame move into.
Yellin: And top surrogates are hitting 16 states to mock John McSame for, in the campaign's words, losing track of his houses. Obama supporter and VP shortlister, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, made the case on CNN.
Tim Kaine: He couldn't count high enough, apparently, to even know how many houses he owned.
Yellin:: The Obama campaign believes this line of attack will persuade voters that McSame is out of touch with regular folks and can't fix what he doesn't know is broken. It could also defuse charges that Obama is elitist. It's as if they're saying, who is the snob now?
Barack: And if you're like me and you got one house, or you were like the millions of people who are struggling right now to keep up with their mortgage so they don't lose their home, you might have a different perspective.
MSNBC: This is something that really breaks through. You can see it becoming late night material.
This ties together Phil Gramm’s comments on the "mental recession" and McSame’s idea that you’re not rich unless you earn $5 million dollars a year.
It’s an easy to digest message to push against McSame.
CNN #1: How many people in America can't answer the question, how many houses do you own?
It's ridiculous. What kind of answer was that?!
CNN #2: It shows McSame is a little out of touch and not writing those checks every month.
CNN #1: It shows that he's old and he's rich.
ABC: This is not what McSame wants to be talking about. Obama and the Democrats smell blood in the water. And they're using the quote to paint McSame as out of touch.
Now, the Obama campaign thinks this gaffe is highly exploitable. And it could be a seminal moment in this fight. In campaigns, even the smallest miscue can take on a life of its own. You remember, Charlie, John Kerry saying, he voted for a troop funding bill, before he voted against for it.
Charlie: All right. Jake Tapper from Virginia.
And our chief Washington correspondent, George Stephanopoulos joins us now.
The Obama people did hop on this rather quickly. They may this think is a seminal moment?
George: They sure do, Charlie.
Remember back in 1992, when it seems like President Bush didn't know what a supermarket scanner was.
They said that was metaphoric for him being out of touch. They think it's going to have that kind of power.
► The Unites States defeated Brazil 1-0 in a brutal, ferocious overtime duel.
► Big Props to goalie Hope Solo who pulled off one miraculous save after another.