Elitist. A lot of us here resent that tag. But we also realize what damage it can do to a campaign. It ended John Kerry's 2004 run (remember the Botox stories that SOMEHOW got on Fox?). It ended John Edwards' 2008 run (400 dollar haircuts). And it's a menacing force that Obama has to deal with, and I think he's doing it well. Check out this video from the trail. Obama sarcastically answers all of the reporters' queries, but at the same time makes his point. The point that no, the kid who was raised by a single mom who was on food stamps for awhile is not an elitist.
It's worth a watch. It's very funny. You can tell Obama is frustrated with this idiotic media coverage. And I can't blame him.
He mentions that he only gets a haircut because his mother-in-law makes fun of him. He wears his suits down to the thread.
The coverage of his bowling score was not only idiotic, but it was also wrong. He only actually bowled 5 frames. And who likes bowling, anyways? Is that how we're supposed to pick a President? By their bowling score? Look where that's gotten us. I bet George W. Bush is a FANTASTIC bowler. He also wearsCrocks.
But, more importantly, Obama raises a good point. They just have to keep mentioning where he came from.
He says:
It's hard for me to figure that out, given that I was raised with far fewer advantages than any of my two remaining opponents. That my work started off on the streets of Chicago as a community organizer, that my wife, Michelle, grew up in that same neighborhood whose parents never went to college... that we financed all our education on student loans, that I was raised in a setting with my grandparents who grew up in small-town Kansas where, you know, the dinner table would have been familiar to anyone here in Indiana. A lot of pot roasts and potatoes and jello molds... People know me. People who've worked with me know that the reason I'm in this race is that my life history and my professional history working as a community organizer, as a civil rights lawyer, as a legislator, is to fight so people can take those same ladders of opportunity that I was able to take as a kid, and right now, this country is not providing those same ladders. That's why I'm in this race.
We need to spread this message. Because it's true. If ELITISM matters, ask the guy that's been using his wife's private jet. If elitism matters, ask the person who was on the corporate board of Wal-Mart.
I wonder if this will get any coverage in the media. Probably not. I heard somewhere that he stayed in a hotel room once, and the guy that was there before PISSED ALL OVER THE TOILET SEAT! And did you know, that only 46 years ago, Barack Obama didn't even KNOW the pledge of allegiance? Change we can believe in indeed... commie Muslim hood-rat fundamentalist Christian black elitist ultra-liberal religion-basher!
UPDATE: First time on the rec list. Does that make me an elitist?