Politics and Culture

From here.

First:

“I am amused about this notion of elitist, given that when you’re raised by a single mom, when you’re on food stamps for a while when you were growing up, you went to school on scholarship….” he said, also talking about his wife Michelle’s money troubles.

“So when somebody makes that argument, particularly given that I spent my entire life working with workers, low-income communities to try to make people’s lives a little bit better, then that’s when you know we’re in political silly season,” he told a veterans forum in Washington, Pa.

Obama can't be this naive. In America, esteem doesn't come from your family background. In fact, a tough background is, in individual achievement-oriented America, prestigious in and of itself which is why Obama (and Edwards) keeps mentioning his hardscrabble life on the beaches of Honolulu and in the halls of prep school and Clinton, Kerry, and Bush never mention theirs.

What does impress elitist liberals is academic achievement; the ability to soothe their egos with Marx-light sweet-nothings (caring, hope, sociological explanations of faith, firearms, and redneck despair); bull-session presence; and "people" cred.- things Obama has in spades. Obama went to Harvard, speaks in emotional generalities; can bull with the best of them after, by his own admission, much practice; and helped "organize" (asked taxpayers for money) the "community" (non-taxpayers).

It's interesting to note what's often not praiseworthy in these circles: Economic productivity (like actually bringing a product to market or meeting a non-home payroll); family pedigree (and/ or race- to their credit); or fidelity to "traditional" social-moral norms.

In other words, for the liberal, politics aside, Obama is much more worthy of admiration than Mitt Romney.

From the naive to the inane:

“There’s a reason people are rejecting Hillary Clinton’s attacks,” the narrator says. “Because the same old Washington politics won’t lower the price of gas or help our struggling economy. Barack Obama will represent all Americans. He offers a new approach”

Guess what Sen. Obama: Less oil exploration, higher taxes on oil exploration, and higher taxes in general won't either. This, on the other hand, will.

From the inane to the idiotic:

“As a white person, this term [elitist], the way it is being used against you, it isn’t far from ‘uppity,’ OK?” the man told Obama angrily. “And I think the Clintons are getting away with something that they must be called on. They will continue to do it until somebody states, ‘Mrs Clinton, you’re really close to prejudice here. This is wrong.’”

What kind of PC-rot has to settle on somebody's mind to force such a statement?

To his credit, Obama didn't agree with this rhetoric bomb, although it would have been a great opportunity for Obama to continue his self-initiated "conversation on race." I actually think "elitist" has nothing to do with "uppity." It's the exact opposite: Elitists wouldn't want anybody to challenge their superiority.