Barack continues to struggle against the elitist label that sticks to him all too well

Barack continues to try to run and hide from his elitist leanings, but the more he struggles, the more the label sticks. From the Washington Post:

"I do think one of the ironies of the past two or three weeks is this idea that Michelle and I are elitist, pointy-headed intellectual types," said Obama, whose young mother became a single parent by the time he was 2. "The fact is, our lives more closely approximate the lives of the average voter than any of the other candidates."

Obama has made millions recently from his best-selling memoirs. His wife, Michelle, is a hospital executive whose salary climbed to $275,000 in the year before the presidential run. But when Obama moved to Chicago after college in the mid-1980s, he earned $1,000 a month as a community organizer.

Barack's own words amply illustrate how out of touch he is. The issue with elitism is not what your own background and financial situation is, but what values you project in your words and actions. Barack is wrong when he suggests that being "intellectual types" defines elitists. You could an intellect of the highest order and still be humble and look at the plight of the common man with empathy rather than condescension.

Technically, Barack and his wife may be financially less well-off than Hillary and McCain, but that is not the point. The point is not whether a politician's own personal life is "closer" financially to an average, working-class voter, but the attitude and values that the politician projects. Barack does a much better job of appealing to the interests and needs of elitists than to the interests and needs of average, working-class Americans.

Maybe some day he will get this right, but for now he does not seem to fathom the nature of his problem.

-- Jack Krupansky