Empathy: What Candidate Has It?

IMO, empathy is sorely lacking in our country. Whether it is at the office or in the neighorhood (when a co-worker is out sick, caring for a sick child or parent, or needs to leave because of a personal commitment, or when we speak of particular groups ( the folks who say --I am sick of paying taxes, I get nothing, I pay too much, I am tired of it, tired of the homeless, the disabled etc - they are lazy, they are faking it) or in politics (politicans are out for themselves, understanding different regions, ethnic groups and other groups or otherwise).

Here is one definition: empathy - An act of imaginatively stepping into another person's perspective and considering how things look from over there, as if one were an insider while one is not one in fact. Success in empathetic understanding would be a matter of having (temporarily, in an act of imagination) entered the perspective of the other person sufficiently well to be able to re-present it credibly to others, especially and above all in a way that is recognizable and credible to those persons who themselves occupy that perspective"
www.aar-site.org/syllabus/syllabi/c/cannon/r201glos.htm

I recently reread an old but fascinating column of Anna Quinlan's, in which she spoke of several conservative commentators who express no empathy for social issues, except very specific issues that affected them personally. For example, George Will - no money for social programs, but supports money for down syndrome research because he has a son with down syndrome; Laura Ingraham - hated gays at Dartmouth, wrote terrible things in the school newspaper about gays and AIDs, now is sympathetic toward gays and AIDs victims because her brother is gay, and she watched his partner die of AIDS. Then there is the republican senator/congressman who supports mental health research because of a child with mental health issues.... Anna points out that these folks developed empathy, but it was limited to only these issues - they had no empathy for other social issues.

What candidate(s) for the democratic nomination has/have empathy? Who can step into another person's perspective and credibly consider and portray how things look from from over there?

Is being rich a barrier to empathy?
Is being schooled at the finest institutions a barrier to empathy?
Is living in the northeast a barrier to empathy?
Is being openly religiously a way to convey empathy?
Do some candidates have empathy for certain issues and not others?

Some politicans have the ability to convey empathy, (whether or not they have it) Who is good at that? Is Bush good at that - even to some people?

Edit: correct typo in subject line

I can't say for sure who has it, but I doubt GWB is even capable of empathizing with arrogant fat-cat lying criminals like himself.

I think insulation is a factor.

Is being rich a barrier to empathy?
Is being schooled at the finest institutions a barrier to empathy?
Is living in the northeast a barrier to empathy?
Is being openly religiously a way to convey empathy?
Do some candidates have empathy for certain issues and not others?

The five questions all deal with being more or less insulated from the factors that affect the part of society attacked. They just do not have an understanding of it in a real way other than what media portray.

I jokingly have cited "gas fumes affecting brain activity" but know there are deep societal factors at work here.

Maybe I should have also said ---

Do poor and middle class folks lack empathy for rich folks who had their taxes cut - because the poor and middle class are insulated from being rich?

conservatives are almost always completely lacking in empathy, except as noted above, issues which affect them personally. Liberals and progressives, on the other hand, seem very capable of empathizing with others not like them.