is obama a… (gasp)… elitist?

I wasn’t going to post about this most recent shit storm swirling around Obama, but I’m sitting here, looking over my taxes, and I need a diversion… So, here’s my take on the “Obama is an Elitist” meme being pushed by Senators Clinton and McCain.

It’s bullshit. And everyone knows it.

No one cares that Obama said that economically depressed Americans are bitter. They are. And, if American voters didn’t turn their back on him when the videos of his friend, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, came out, showing him preaching about the evil of the white man, they aren’t going to abandon him now. And attacking him on this issue only makes Clinton and McCain look more desperate.

The truth is, though, that Obama has the momentum and the other candidates have no choice but to strike when they see an opportunity, no matter how small. Obama’s been running a very tight campaign. He hasn’t made many missteps. So, the other day, when he suggested that economically depressed Americans, not feeling empowered to vote on economic issues, vote on issues that they’re more comfortable with, like abortion and guns, Hillary and McCain pounced. This was likely their last shot — an opening to paint Obama with the John Kerry brush. So, they took the airwaves en force, talking about the former Chicago organizer’s “elitism.” Sure it was a stretch, but they didn’t have anything else.

Hillary Clinton said Obama’s remarks seemed, “elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing.” She went on to say that he, “did not really understand, or relate to, or frankly respect, their ways of life.” But that wasn’t all. Later, she said, “I disagree with Sen. Obama’s assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration.”

Of course, it’s something that a Clinton herself had said, according to Theda Skocpol, a Harvard University political scientist who had been privy to such discussions. Here’s a clip from her post at Talking Points Memo:

…I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government — and Bill Clinton — and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break!… This has to be one of the few times in U.S. political history when a multi-millionaire has accused a much less wealthy fellow public servant, a person of the same party and views who made much less lucrative career choices, of “elitism”…

And people are starting to call her on it. People are bringing up the fact that she led the Million Mom March against guns, and they’re asking her at her press stops when she last shot a gun and attended church. In response to that last question, by the way, Clinton said, “That is not a relevant question… We can answer that some other time.”

Maybe people will buy it. Or, more to the point, maybe enough people in Pennsylvania will buy it to keep her in the race, but, barring a huge misstep by Obama, I think she’s done. This, I think, was the last act of a desperate person.

OK, so I have to get back to taxes now. I leave you to sort it all out.

Oh, before I go, I should point out that McCain owns 8 houses and Hillary made about 20 times what Obama did last year. Elitist, indeed.

update: I just had to move this comment from Ol’ E Cross up to the front page.

I wasn’t going to vote for Obama because he’s too black but then I found out he’s not black enough, which is just as bad. And, I still can’t decide whether I’m note going to vote for him because he’s a Muslim or for what his Christian pastor said. Now this “he’s the most liberal senator” vs. “most elitist” thing has just made it all the more frustrating. I don’t know where to apply my prejudices.

I think I’ll stick with the fact that he can’t bowl. That seems like the only accusation leveled against him that isn’t logically contradicted by another.