I Got Your "Elitism" Right Here

Stop the presses! Barack Obama used imprecise language! Oh, the horror! How can we possibly elect a politician who doesn't say exactly what he means?

This has got to be the stupidest manufactured "Gotcha!" moment yet this campaign.  But what really chaps my hide is that Hillary Clinton had the huevos to call Obama an elitist.  You want to know what elitism really sounds like? Let's take a little trip back to 1992 and the words of one Hillary Rodham Clinton...

Wikipedia:

# During the political damage control over the Gennifer Flowers episode during the 1992 campaign, Hillary Clinton said in a joint 60 Minutes interview, "I'm not sitting here as some little woman 'standing by my man' like Tammy Wynette. I'm sitting here because I love him and I respect him, and I honor what he's been through and what we've been through together." The seemingly sneering reference to country music provoked immediate criticism that Clinton was culturally tone-deaf, and Tammy Wynette herself did not like the remark because her classic song "Stand by Your Man" is not written in the first person. See "2000: Hillary Clinton is first First Lady in Senate", BBC, 2000-11-07. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.  Wynette further said that Clinton had "offended every true country music fan and every person who has 'made it on their own' with no one to take them to a White House." See "Tammy Wynette, country music's first lady, dies at 55", CNN.com, 1998-04-07. Retrieved on 2007-10-01.  A few days later, on Prime Time Live, Clinton apologized to Wynette. Clinton would later write that she had not been careful in her choice of words and that "the fallout from my reference to Tammy Wynette was instant — as it deserved to be — and brutal." See Living History, p. 108. The two women patched things up, with Wynette appearing later at a Clinton fund raiser.

And:

Less than two months after the Tammy Wynette remarks, Hillary Clinton was facing questions about whether she could have avoided possible conflicts of interest between her Governor husband and work given to the Rose Law Firm, when she remarked, "I've done the best I can to lead my life ... You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life." See Living History, p. 109. The "cookies and teas" part of this prompted even more culture-based criticism, objecting to Clinton's apparent distaste for women who had chosen a homemaker role in life. See Hillary Clinton. Miller Center of Public Affairs. University of Virginia. Retrieved on 2007-10-01. Clinton subsequently offered up some cookie recipes as a way of making amends, and would later write of her chagrin: "Besides, I've done quite a lot of cookie baking in my life, and tea-pouring too!" Living History, p. 109.

So Hillary should just SHFPH about "elitist" statements that were the result of, as Obabma explained, not saying it as well as he could have.  Hillary did say one thing I agree with though:

"People don't need a president who looks down on them," she said. "They need a president who stands up for them."

Except that ain't you, Hillary.