What is it with Senate candidates making condescending remarks about folks who don't share their privileged socio-economic and educational backgrounds? First it was Bruce Braley, then it was Bill Cassidy, and now it's wealthy businessman David Perdue, who's seeking the GOP nomination for Senate in Georgia. Speaking of one of his rivals, former Secretary of State Karen Handel, at a campaign stop in January, Perdue seriously stepped in it:
"I mean, there's a high school graduate in this race, okay? I'm sorry, but these issues are so much broader, so complex. There's only one candidate in this race that's ever lived outside the United States. How can you bring value to a debate about the economy unless you have any understanding about the free enterprise system and how—what it takes to compete in the global economy?"
You can just taste the condescension. What's also amusing is that, at the same time he was slurring Handel, Perdue touted the fact that he's lived abroad—not exactly the kind of message that typically resonates with GOP primary voters, many of whom (like most Americans) are not college graduates. Handel, of course,
jumped all over Perdue, and as
Ed Kilgore put it, she "was lucky enough to have world champion grievance-monger Sarah Palin ... in-state to pile on." (Palin compared Handel's plight to post-Hollywood Ronald Reagan. Sounds about right.)
Fortunately for lovers of GOP infighting—what we like to call "cat fud"—this new feud doesn't sound like it'll simmer down any time soon. Perdue's dug in, insisting that his statement was merely "based on facts that are a matter of public record." This is a bit like a taunting bully claiming, "What? It's true that you're ugly," which is probably not a winning campaign strategy. Then again, who knows what ideas David Perdue might have picked up overseas.
