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MoDo: Obama the elitist
Brace yourselves -- it's actually good!Im not bitter. Im not writing this just because I grew up in a house with a gun, a strong Catholic faith, an immigrant father, brothers with anti-illegal immigrant sentiments and a passion for bowling. (My bowling trophy was one of my most cherished possessions.) My family morphed from Kennedy Democrats into Reagan Republicans not because they were angry, but because they felt more comfortable with conservative values. Members of my clan sometimes were overly cloistered. But they werent bitter; they were bonding. They went to church every Sunday because it was part of their identity, not because they needed a security blanket. Behind closed doors in San Francisco, elitisms epicenter, Barack Obama showed his elitism, attributing the emotional, spiritual and cultural values of working-class, lunch pail Pennsylvanians to economic woes. . . . His mother got her Ph.D. in anthropology, studying the culture of Indonesia. And as Obama has courted white, blue-collar voters in Deer Hunter and Rocky country, he has often appeared to be observing the odd habits of the colorful locals, resisting as the natives try to fatten him up like a foie gras goose, sampling Pennsylvania beer in a sports bar with his tie tight, awkwardly accepting bowling shoes as a gift from Bob Casey, examining the cheese and salami at the Italian Market here as intriguing ethnic artifacts, purchasing Utz Cheese Balls at a ShopRite in East Norriton and quizzing the women working in a chocolate factory about whether they could possibly really like the sugary doodads. He hasnt pulled a John Kerry and asked for a Philly cheese steak with Swiss yet, but he has maintained a regal What do the simple folk do to help them escape when theyre blue? bearing, unable to even feign Main Street cred. . . . What turns off voters is the detached egghead quality that they tend to equate with a wimpiness, wordiness and a lack of action the same quality that got the professorial and superior Adlai Stevenson mocked by critics as Adelaide. The new attack line for Obama rivals is that hes gone from J.F.K. to Dukakis. (Just as Dukakis chatted about Belgian endive, Obama chatted about Whole Foods arugula in Iowa.) Obama did not grow up in cosseted circumstances. . . . But his exclusive Hawaiian prep school and years in the Ivy League made him a charter member of the elite, along with the academic experts he loves to have in the room. As Colbert pointed out, the other wonky Ivy League lawyer in the primary just knows how to condescend better. . . . Posted by: Mike 2008-04-16 |
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