But the events of the past day have shown something that has been a gold mine in more ways than one. Even though McCain’s character is highly flawed – as he is a panderer, he is nasty and vindictive and has a total lack of morals, the public has still clung to the old 2000 version of McCain, making up for all of the other shortfalls, gaffes and indicents.

Not any more.

The elitist and out of touch charge is one that McCain has been desperately trying to hang on Obama, mainly because it is projecting his own elitism and being out of touch with Americans onto the opposing candidate. As with most things that republicans talk or whine about (corruption, sex scandals, lies), one only has to look to the one making the charge to see what his or her own flaws are that he or she is covering up.

People have forgiven McCain and given him a pass because he is perceived to be a straight shooter, to do what he wants and buck his party or because he has “fought for the troops, the people” or whatever other constituency he claims to support when in fact his votes tell a completely different story (for example, there are his lies about energy policy or his votes against the troops and veterans).

We all know that McCain is a phony – a hack who will say or do whatever needs to be said in order to get ahead personally. This is evidence by his cozying up to the Bush/Rove crowd that shredded him in 2000, sucking up to the fundies who he denounced a few years earlier or talking about standing up to lobbyists when his campaign is run by lobbyists.

But until the public has something that it can latch onto – something that it can definitively relate to, none of this matters, and all of the facts, all of the truth, all of the comments or votes can be explained away or discounted.

Yesterday’s comments are indicative of a theme – one of many that we have been hitting on. And just as it takes some time to find what sticks, we have found something that sticks. Check out this video as a perfect example (for some reason, it won't embed but I will put it in if I can get it to work).

Think of the questions about McCain being out of touch with Americans that stem from this very issue. Think of how the perception of George HW Bush changed after the “supermarket incident”. And with the economy ranking higher and higher on people’s list of concerns, even McCain’s “I don’t really understand economics” comment that previously got downplayed comes back into view.

• How can John McCain solve our economic problems when he doesn’t admit they exist?
• How can John McCain even begin to understand the housing crisis when he can’t even count how many houses he owns?
• How can someone who pays his household employees over $250,000 per year to (literally) put food on his table understand the problems Americans have putting food on their own tables? (bonus factoid - this is more than the average home IS WORTH)
• How can someone who pays more in alimony to the wife he cheated on than millions of households earn in a year understand the choices that millions of Americans have to make every day regarding money?
• How can someone who gambles thousands of dollars at a time understand how far those thousands of dollars would go to helping most Americans pay for gas, mortgages, medicine or food?

These all show how out of touch McCain is with Americans and the very big, very real problems that they face as a result of the republicans’ economic policies.

This is something that most Americans can understand. This is something that will turn off most Americans as they struggle to make ends meet.

This is a winning line of attack against McCain and punctures the entire character issue that he has tried so hard to craft, while shielding the truth about him and his charmed life from America.