Much ado about nada...

We read today that the candidates are trying to use each other's person lives to paint them as out of touch:

Democrat Barack Obama seized on comments from Republican John McCain in a Politico interview Wednesday where he could not identify the number of houses he owned. As Obama mocked his rival at a town hall meeting here for the comments, his campaign sent an ad to national cable stations and deployed high-profile surrogates in 16 key states, casting the comments as evidence that McCain does not understand working families.

But wait!

McCain’s campaign responded by raising Obama’s ties to Tony Rezko, a former Obama fundraiser who was convicted this year on corruption charges unrelated to the senator. Obama and his wife bought their $1.65 million home in 2005 after getting advice from Rezko.

So, who's really out of touch?

The answer is:

Both.

Politicians, especially members of the US Senate, are so divorced from the day to day lives of ordinary Americans its mind boggling. They're driven around, surrounded by staff, have even the most mundane of transactions taken care of, etc. No wonder few retire voluntarily to become just one of the people.

I'm not saying that makes them bad people - just that we shouldn't be fooled into thinking that either "really understands working families" except as an abstraction. If voters keep their eye on the ball and ignore this nonsense, politicians will start talking about things that matter.