There is a problem: Barack Obama simply IS an elitist! That's why it works so well. It is also why someone who is unqualified to be president (Obama) has the arrogance to run on a record that includes NO leadership - no bills sponsored, no causes championed, except for his own exceptionalism. It works because many americans who are not elitists themselves recognize that it's true. It would be a much better strategy to just say that yes, in fact, he is in an elitist, and so what? We WANT policy wonkish types running our government! (Someone like Ralph Nader, for example).

I used to say that the candidate with the most testosterone will always win the presidency in America. While I still believe this to a large degree, I am beginning to believe that another tell-tale sign of sure victory is the basic IQ level of the candidate. The Republicans, with their freedom chanting and lets all die together for our corporate fathers mentality, definitely have the advantage in this upcoming election. It's hard to beat the Republican Party for sheer, unadulterated stupidity. Looking forward to the third-world country that the Republican Party will finally deliver to us Muricans. i've always wanted to stand around a barrel fire in the street. It may be the only way for Americans to get re-acquainted with one another. McCain/Palin 08!

If you guys think Obama is an elitist then the McCain college-student led war room has done its job.

Voting for mcain't sane because he's as dumb as a sack of hammers??? Isn't that the attitude that got you bush?

Way to go, Maher. Another nail in Obama's coffin. >:-)

But seriously, this "logic" is getting really old. It's equivalent to concluding that women who oppose "beauty" pageants are ugly and jealous. Come on, boys, can't you come up with a better argument ?

There is nothing wrong with a guy working paving wal-marts parking lot (walmart itself being an evil opportunist empire aside).. I believe, like the more indigenous SA perspective.. it isn't how good your job is, but how well you do your job...

BUT..this is not the person I want sitting at the table brokering international peace agreements. granted with a political interpreter to let him know what is accurate and what something really means... it might be more effective than having politicians do it... but this guy is not inherently ready or have the critical thinking skills to be quick on his feet in the international arena.

DAMN STRAIGHT yes i DO want an elitist on the front line. and hopefully that elitist will raise the bar/ standard for americans as a whole to aspire toward. the W bart simpson model hasn't fared very well for this country.

Every teacher knows that when there are gifted students in the classroom - it raises the performance of all the other students...

Obama's response should be-- Yes I am capable and have worked hard to succeed.. and I want to bring that possibility to each and every American!

Democrats and the Obama party need to stop driveling and grovelling over republican digs and jabs and swipes.. and make those their strongest political assets! have some pride/backbone already!

It is difficult to take seriously some Cat who earns his living off the corporate media gravy train inside the holliwood beltway. The fact is Obama, McCain and the pack of sheep that follow either candidate and the elitist holliwood, corporate owned cheerleaders that support them have nothing in common with us. Dumbo ought to get a real life with the rest of the peasantry living off of diminishing pay scales thanks to the status quo THEY ALL REPRESENT. This Cat makes a pretty good living commenting on our suffering while driving around in his SUV and hobnobbing with the rest of the elites he speaks for. Moreover, he ought to be posting his jaundiced views in the corporate owned section and not here. Since I dont own a TV, I dont have to tune in to his corporate tripe.

"Watch television, watch all those...officials who...stand
up and talk about bringing peace to the world and they talk
about curing inflation and they talk about new energy programs
that we're going to have. And they're well-dressed in suits
and ties, and they don't appear scared behind the microphone.

I wonder if there's one of you, I'm serious, I wonder if there's
one of you in this room who really sees that that man and that
woman are talking in their sleep. They don't know anything.

The last thing they know is how to cure inflation, because that's
a spiritual problem. The last thing they know is how to save
energy - that's a spiritual problem. The last thing they know is
how to make other people happy - that's a spiritual problem.
Therefore, they are lying, they're deceiving you because they've
first deceived themselves. Is there one of you here who sees
deeply into that, who understands it? I'll guarantee you the
first time you see it you will collapse in horror at what is
going on on this earth.

If you don't see it, you're still a part of it."

Teachings DVD 36, Talk # 1

No, just like all the rest, Obama is 'talking in his sleep,' spiritual sleep.

when obama included people sceptical about "free" trade agreements along with biblers and gun toters in his SF speech, i began to see him as an elitist. and that comment about guys resurfacing driveways with their brothers-in-law...oh, sure...that's all we need to hear

Talk about a nonsensical article by a Democratic Party hack, it is unfortunate that just about all the articles on Common Dreams frame the so-called elections as a Republican vs. Democrat duel - when in fact it is nothing more than a competition between two equally repugnant faces, both of whom have promised to kill more once they take office - both are more of the same.

The issue here is not who is elitist or who is not --- they are both serving the elites - or the ruling imperialist class, both frame their favoring imperial wars as something about the "security" of the "american people" - and both will not invest in the people of American, and will instead invest heavily in wars, and give breaks to mega corporations. They only have small differences in rhetoric.

But what this article does try and do is to cast a blanket on any discussion about class, especially classism within racial "minorities" - in fact, it gives the distinct impression of favoring that narrative that assumes that someone who has "made it" as part of the US ruling class (Harvard etc.) is somehow "better" than your run of the mill Wal Mart shopper. Most of those who shop at Wal Mart do so because the economy is so screwed up, and the goods are way cheaper at Wal Mart --- i.e. they are making an intelligent choice based on their circumstance. There are only a small minority of white yuppie types who have the resources to shop at small botique type stores, and pay three or four times for the same item.

The Wal Mart in my area has a way higher % of latino,asian,black shoppers than little indy stores that primarily now cater to whites --- that does not mean those shoppers are stupid, it means they are responding as they should to economics. The shoppers are not the issue, the economy that favors wal mart is, and Obama/McCain offer nothing in the way that would change those dynamics.

http://almusawwir.org/resistance/