So please tell me why Obama is still painted as an 'elite'. If anyone imo

can and should be painted as elite, it's not Barack Obama. I keep hearing Tweety claim OBama has been poor and he's been privileged, but Obama has never been the in the middle-class. Even with proof to the contrary (read a book, Tweety), that's the talking point, and I don't get it. What am I missing? Look up Clinton and McCain in the encyclopedia, you might see 'elite', but Obama? Is Tweets delusional or does he listen to too much of his own hype?

What the hell determines and elitist anyway? Cause I see nothing about Barack that is not down to plain old earth. He would be a riot to have a beer with or anything else that one chooses to do in there spare time.

elitism, because he hasn't seen much of either in HRC. But if that's true, Tweety has some brushing up to do himself.

Compared with *, anyone should look elite.

better than them.

independent thinkers.

called Obama an elitist. lol

"Matthews is saying that Obama was poor, and then rich, while there was no in between (!), which people can't relate to. And him and Joe started going off on the Harvard thing, and Mika said "well, do you honestly think that he doesn't understand things like gas prices or people struggling with their bills, Chris? Isn't it a perception problem?" And Chris said "I haven't seen any evidence that he understands it" (!). Mika started to talk about the student loans thing, which Joe and Chris drowned out with "ohhh please, he made millions of dollars last year! " (Chris also got in the "exotic lifestyle" dig about his biography). And Mika said "I just don't think someone should be punished for having gone to a good school", but Chris and Joe shut that down too. The general election has definitely begun"

I guess Matthews is ready to focus on his true love McCain, since it's GE time (though, he kind of has been saying this stuff about Obama for awhile. I don't get it. Apparently, he is out of touch because he likes orange juice. The horrors!)

analogies he spews ad nauseum. He can't let go of Tip O'Neill as his only claim to fame and he is threatened by people of superior education. He obviously hasn't read even a sketch of Obama's biography, much less bothered to pick up his books (Brokow said last night the books should be required reading and I agree). I'll never forget the night he sputtered when he found out Rachel Maddow was a PhD and Rhodes Scholar.

I don't think Matthews is a McCain fan.. I just think he's threatened by anything or anyone usurping his dominance over the conversation he THINKS America should have.

I caution everyone that significant parts of Obama's compelling life story are in sharp contrast to how his family and friends describe things in various articles. After reading and hearing the personal way he presents events, how he felt and what he thought, one can easily start believing they really know him. But all of this detail, this openness, the introspection leaves the impression that this must be how things are, but it distracts you from things he leaves out, or glosses over, or describes in a way that leaves others with an overly-favorable impression.

I listen to Obama with the same radar I use with Bush, Cheney, Bill Clinton, or any other politician. Obama is superb t at that in his speeches, less so in debates. But it is his body language, the slight hesitation, seeming to avoid making eye contact, his clothes and his manners -- these all send signals that contribute to others thinking of him as efite or elitist, if not elite.

The private schools Obama attended were certainly among the elite. The only "public" school he attended was in Indonesia after his stepfather move the family to an exclusive neighborhood, home to many government and business leaders. It is unclear how much scholarships paid of the private school attended by Obama and his sister and how much was paid by the family, including his grandmother. It is the most exclusive, the most elite school in Hawaii and is rated among the top ten in the US.

Degrees from Columbia and Harvard help define one as elite. Anyone else with his background would be considered elite by most anyone. That is also true for nearly anyone likely to be elected President. Most of the Dem candidates are highly educated, and the final choice was once again between grads of Harvard and Yale.
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Obama grew up in a solidly senior professional middle-class, even upper-middle, family. Mother has PhD, grandmother a senior VP of a Bank, absent father with graduate degree from Harvard, several siblings with PhD. This is not what most people would consider an humble background, of coming up from almost nothing to where he is today. That story is mostly BS, and the RW are busy making sure that this alternate version becomes known.

BTW Professionals in the field who examined the Food Stamp story concluded it was probably part of a child nutrition program young children of single parents who were working or full-time students and was not financial-need based.

I have been warning for months this would become a huge problem for us with Obama as our nominee. We all know how effective the RW were against Gore and Kerry, and I fear that Obama provides much for them to exploit.

compared to the other candidate, or compared to anyone. Obama is the one who went to great schools but had to pay off his student loans, as did his wife. Maybe Tweety doesn't 'get' it because he's too elitist? He's no doubt annoying me with this though.

We need to mass e-mail them whenever they start spouting b.s. we know is not true.. How is Joe or Mathews relevant to middle America? Do you think they know what middle America needs or wants? I think the Obama's are a true American rags to riches.. the best of what America can be and could be and should offer for everyone.

Would we really want a President without a good sound education? Would we want a President who doesn't understand the economy again? How in touch is John McCain with his 8 mansions and his billionaire heiress wife? Do you think that John McCain knows the price of gas? When is the last time he could actually drive, old fart, let alone pump his gas? When is the last time he had to worry if he had enough money to pay the bills? When was the last time he had to worry about putting his children through college? Or being a college student graduating into an economy, that even with a higher education, will be going back to live with their parents and working at a restraunt, bar, hotel, or JC Penny because there are no jobs? John McCain is elitist... and the Obama's struggled... he wrote a book, which like Michelle said, was like winning the lottery for our family.

I'm sorry, the Obama's seem the closest thing to normal and down to earth if you are comparing them to middle America or John McCain.

Its time to take back our media.. Post on their blogs on the website, e-mail them and tell them we are on to them and its not going to work this time, call into right wing radio shows constantly to tell them that they are wrong with the assertions they are making... Call the bluff. We need to steal back our country.. the media are still trying to protect themselves. They are told their talking points. They push them off as real views of middle America when we know that Kucinich's views are really closer to middle America.

Election Reform, Un-biased media, and Progress are the 3 fundalmental things that we NEED and MUST work on to get our country back.

how much Tweets made on his books, and where each of them went to school? Bashing and trashing Obama, from these actors on these soap opera shows should be a surprise to no one. It is why they make the big bucks.

"we don't really trust an intellectual to toe the line of OUR elites, the corporate elites." The only way in which he is an elite is his top-notch education, which he seems to have valued a great deal. This in contrast to someone like Bush, who went to only the best schools and managed to emerge unscathed by enlightenment.

He scares them. It's all they've got, because he is dignified and refuses to stoop to their level.

Empty rhetoric that reinforces his negatives within Hillary's base.

of Buchanan's mouth. He's also claimed Obama is an 'elitist' ad nauseum. Out of his mouth, I know he has other motives, and to blunt achievements of any kind makes sense.

It's that he's "perceived" as an elite. It's a fine distinction. And it's something that the media is TOTALLY overblowing (present tense of "overblown"?) right now. Best example: Buchanan still screaming "What's his problem?!?" even after he's won the nomination.

That said, I do think he has some additional work to make sure middle class people feel like they know him. As does ANY candidate who makes it in to the GE. More people have participated in the primaries than ever before, but there are still a huge number of people who are only now (or maybe during the convention) going to start paying attention. Do I think he can win without "sitting in a bar" (to quote Tweety et al)? Sure. It's him or McSame! But will it be a far easier contest, perhaps even a landslide, if he does some work to let people (middle class, lower class, upper class, hell, kindergarten class) get to know him? Yes. So he should do that. Of course, that's not exactly "news," to him, us or anyone else.

attended his rallies. Why is the m$m so clueless when so many Americans aren't? I know, they're paid to forward that meme, perception, but it's annoying. And you're right, I'm sure Obama will get right on it now that he can.

The 'punditz' throw 'elite' around a lot. I think it's because they are intimidated. Obama's 'exotic'
to them because of his mixed race; places he's lived (Hawaii, etc.) and the success he's achieved in
his life. When someone says they want a candidate they could have a beer with, I suspect they are really saying: "I want a candidate that doesn't make me uncomfortable; who hasn't had more life
experiences than me".

At any rate, it irritates me to hear 'elitist' thrown around willy-nilly. Would love to make Timmeah and Buchanan, et al explain to me just exactly what 'elitist' means to them and then make them use it in a sentence where it actually applies.

are the elitists, and you're right; maybe they haven't yet figured out how to define Obama. Too bad they feel a need to do so to begin with.

have to be paired with "the elite" - otherwise, white men and women might actually vote their class interest.

Obama looks good in a suit because he is thin. He went to Columbia and Harvard Law and educated people flocked to him for his oratory and emphasis on ideas. My working class relatives were warming to him until the media and Hillary started the "elite" drumbeat. It's nonsense.

I'd place the blame squarely on HRC and the media.

So you must be an elitist if you're not the Republican candidate. :hi:

does it? :yoiks:

'nuff said.

Given who their current president is:

The eternal fuck-up born by fate into a rich/connected family who went to private schools and an Ivy League college. Furthermore, Bush owes his entire "success", as it were, completely due to his family name and connections as opposed to any real effort on his part.

If he had been George W. Harris vs "Bush" he wouldn't have made it past the first few rounds in the primaries much less become governor or president.

The best I can tell, his whole "ah shucks" image seems to be based entirely on the "ranch" which is so obviously a transparent attempt to be folksy I can't believe people fell for it.

In short, I don't know how much more elite you can get than George W. Bush when you factor is his upbringing and past but somehow he managed to convince enough people that he was "just one of the them" and be competitive enough in the election that the results could be tweaked.

Elite is a code word for UPPITY, in this instance. To the white racist, the black man cannot win. He's either not enough WHITE, or too much WHITE. If he's accomplished, educated, then he enters the uppity zone aka ELITIST.

The problem is white people who are racist, and I was speaking shorthand.

For those people, blacks cannot win. If they speak in the manner common among many blacks, the whites ridicule them for not being sufficiently like whites. If blacks do aspire to a good job, a good house, a nice family, a well educated mind and voice, then the racist whites find such blacks "uppity."

Such whites will not say they're racist. They won't use Uppity, because they know it's unacceptable. So they contrive "elitist." He's suppose to be a snob. This is what is underlying the entire "he's an elitist" meme. It's white racists giving voice to their disdain for a black man who is smarter, better educated, and a more capable speaker than them.

this mindset in anyone. People with that mindset probably have problems with anyone who isn't white or straight. I think the problem is their sense of entitlement. Who crowned them better than anyone else? Judging from their outlook, I could easily discriminate against them for their ignorance.

And what's the matter with that? Don't we want that in a President?

with the Jones'? It doesn't matter whether the Jones' live just off Central Park, in the middle class, or in a Coleman tent cooking over a sterno can down by the river; the Jones' are perpetually they who have that elitist halo about them that others forever strive to attain.

Even in Hawaii where Obama was raised, Americans hoped they were viewed as elite by Hawaiians after having colonized & developed the island into one big Naval Base...now the elites are Asian real estate moguls & industrialists.

Last year, people that drove SUV's thought of themselves as elitist, these days they actually pull over and ask us what kind of mileage we get with our Ford Focus. We've had a Focus for nearly 10 years. We are on the crest of what will be elitist tomorrow, yay!

You can't just go to a dictionary and declare certain matters untenable when you *don't* see a picture of Barack Obama next to it. Elitism, as a subject, is a bit more fluid than that. If not elusive for many more. Like the pursuit of happiness.

The Obama's are elitist to many of us even here. What is the point of attaining an ivy league education unless you are to ascend, distinguish yourself from the rabble? You can still turn around and pat some on the head but there should be no illusion. The greater of which being that by being an elitist you're somehow wrong. Try it that way. Embrace elitism.

Cause The Obama's are elitist, and conduct themselves as such. Elitism is also a frame of mind.

It can refer to status but also to ability:

NOUN:
pl. elite or elites

1.
1. A group or class of persons or a member of such a group or class, enjoying superior intellectual, social, or economic status: "In addition to notions of social equality there was much emphasis on the role of elites and of heroes within them" (Times Literary Supplement).
2. The best or most skilled members of a group: the football team's elite.

http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/elite

We really need to add a third meaning that describes how the word is used by the right wing to tar Democrats with "elitism" for being educated or valuing education. This usage is basically anti-intellectualism, pushed by Republicans because it's easier to manipulate uninformed people.

(Ironically, the derivation of the word "elite" is from the French, so using the word "elite" is, in itself, elitist and unAmerican by any Republican measure. lol)

republicans aren't playing to the human brain. They're playing to the fight or flight reptilian brain. Where all that are required is animal cunning, and the IQ of a light switch. They'll claim proximity to the common man/woman, while selling no-bid cronies SUV's & Hummer's at 15% over cost.

It's a sweet little gig, if you don't mind a head full of cavities.

get free passes. Someone upthread mentioned it's interchangeable with 'uppity'. That word wouldn't be used for Clinton/McCain. Why is Obama the only one being branded?

will never touch my gander yada-yada stuff. Theresa Heinz Kerry is an elitist, well, she doesn't drink in our saloon so there's that; and so is Cindy McCain...wait a minute...

Lots of ketchup & beer? That's all it takes? And you & me could be elitists!? :woohoo: :patriot:

Though I do hear you on the broad brush component. They did the same thing with B. Clinton. He made low 30K's as AR Governor. I am sure he'd have preferred they stop, if ever they passed it; at elitism. He just would have started up talking about crops, cattle & watermelons till they got tired & stopped themselves.

Sadly, it's not over for Barack. They have yet to begin plowing his row. We'll be sitting through some amazing shit before too long is my guess. The primary was merely a contentious mess. It's going to get real shitty from here to there x(

Hilbots using the words "arrogant" and "elite" like this for months. Again they are targeting their "hard-working white" base. Honestly they fit in better with McCain and his crew.

If Obama is elite, then I proudly stand with him as an elitist as well.

so I don't buy that it has anything to do with him being black and "uppity".

The Repubs are definitely working off a different definition than one in the dictionary because by most standards the Bush's and Cheney's are pretty damn elite as well if you factor in upbringing, education and income.

Does anyone see the irony here?

One of the definitions of elite from Marriam-Webster's dictionary is "the best of a class".

Barack Obama is an African-American man with a white mother that had a father abandon his family at an early age. His mother had to get food stamps at one point. They moved around the world. His mother then passed away while he was still young and he was raised by his grandparents.

Many folks raised in that kind of family situation usually end up turning to drugs or getting into trouble with the law. The odds of his family situation were against him. Yet he went on to earn scholarships to the top schools in the country. He became a successful community organizer. He became a successful lawyer. He earned a state senate seat. He earned a US senate seat. Now, he has earned the Democratic nomination for president. He overcame enormous odds to become what he is today. That is the definition of an elite, the best of a class.

But thanks for your explanation.

The attackers are trying to define it as someone above the common folk. Yet, the term elite has many definitions. If in a repeated talking point we refer to Obama as elite because he overcame enormous odds to achieve what he has today, then we can take away their talking points.

We can also make points that we need an elite person to lead this country. When we refer to members of the military called to go on a special mission, we refer to an elite squadron. Most folks would want an elite team of doctors to operate on them. We can remind folks of what happens when we don't choose the elite person, we get Bush or bottom of the class, John McCain. IMHO, using the definition of "best in class" changes the spin by Obama's critics. It's better than having Barack Obama do tequila shots with a group of good ole boys at the local bar.

All three went to college.

All three have been senators.

All three have some money.

It is a distraction. And a very poor one. The fact that it works says more about the intellect of the average citizen than it does about the people who perpetuate it.

this is why he has to keep explaining who he is because the media has been defining him when they don't know what in the hell they are talking about..

and as easy prey for propagandists and their memes- no matter how contradictory they may seem.

You really have to spend time abroad to see just how far off the irrational deep end Americans are with respect to what they'll believe.

Joe Bageant describes it as a God given right to hold their opinion, no matter how ridiculous, contrary to fact or self-destructive it may be.

So- Obama is the elitist, while the Admirals' son who slacked off at WestPoint and divorced to marry an heiress is the salt of the earth.

:crazy:

Almost any Australian would see right through that shit- and ridicule anyone who tried to pull that on them. Not so in the states, and therein lies the root of many of the nations' problems.

It doesn't play well with the general population.