McCain blunder leaves him looking for political shelter

Obama and his wife, Michelle, bought their only home, a three-story Georgian revival house in Chicago's leafy Kenwood neighborhood, for $1.6 million in 2005. They probably could not have done that without help from Antoin Rezko, an early political patron. Rezko paid $625,000 to buy the adjoining lot from the home's owner, who wanted to sell it in a package deal. Obama later bought a narrow strip of the Rezko lot.

In June, a federal jury convicted Rezko of mail fraud, money laundering and other crimes. None of the charges related to Obama or his home.

McCain earned a Senate salary of $161,708 and royalties of $176,508 last year from his books. His wife listed about $6 million in income from salary, dividends, capital gains and payments from trusts on her 2006 federal tax return.

Cindy McCain's worth is estimated at as much as $100 million. She is the chairwoman of Hensley & Co., a privately held Phoenix-based distributor of Anheuser-Busch beer that she inherited from her father.

When in Washington, the McCains live in a modern three-bedroom condominium in a high-rise in Arlington, across the Potomac River in Virginia. It is assessed at $847,800.

In Arizona, the McCains lived until several years ago in Cindy McCain's childhood home in Phoenix, which was featured in the glossy pages of Architectural Digest in 2005. They sold it soon after and moved into a $4.7-million condominium in Phoenix.

The McCains spend weekends, if possible, in the remote rolling hills of Sedona. Their 15-acre compound features a modest residence and several guest cabins beside a creek sheltered in a verdant box canyon. The assessed value is $1.6 million.

The McCains also spent $4.7 million to buy two beachfront condos near the posh Hotel del Coronado in San Diego County.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, Cindy McCain confessed that her husband, who has suffered from skin cancer and must avoid the sun, wasn't initially in favor of buying oceanfront property.

"When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh, this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go,' " she said. "Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one."

A McCain campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for the number of rental and investment properties Cindy McCain and her children own through trusts and partnerships.