Elitist, Pointy-Headed Type
Doth protest a bit much. NYT’s Caucus:
“I do think one of the ironies of the past two or three weeks is this idea that Michelle and I are elitist, intellectual pointy-head types. The fact is our lives more closely approximate the lives of the average voters than any of the other candidates,” he said. “We didn’t recognize the caricature that was being painted of us over the last couple of weeks.”
Sorry, in case you didn’t figure it out, that was Obama. It’s a little ironic, seeing as he’s been trying to dodge the political inexperience thing, but is now eager to highlight ordinariness. Also somewhat … how to put this … awkward with the truth, as the average voter didn’t attend either Princeton, Columbia or Harvard, and didn’t make $4.2 million last year or $991,296 the year before. Joe Average also didn’t address the 2004 DNC or launch a presidential campaign by acclaim prompted largely by a combination of his well-spoken charm and an accident of his birth. And not a single voter has had the opportunity to address these words to a group of la-di-da San Francisco progressives:
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Welcome Instapundit, Fark, Surberistas, etal. Come on in. Hungry? I kill to eat. It’s a bit of an unPCapalooza today, so here’s the latest legal news on unPC usage. Careful you don’t catch anything, there’s some bad viral insurgencies making the rounds. Like ‘em hot and crazy? This one’s your girl. Did I mentioned moody, self-obsessed and sociopathic? You can call me a dull-brained lowbrow if you like, but I’m steering clear of that. Don’t know much about history? Neither do our anti-American Sunni pals in Baghdad, but they’ve got killer graphics on Great American Slaughterers Through the Ages. Their idea of the C-word is “infidel Crusader dogs.” That said, I bet those guys aren’t keen on the prospects of this peace partnership.
Topics: pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:19 pm on Friday, May 2, 2008
10 Responses to “Elitist, Pointy-Headed Type”
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May 2nd, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Or earn $1.9 million. Or attend Columbia. Or Harvard. Or live in a mansion.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
The fact is our lives more closely approximate the lives of the average voters than any of the other candidates,” he said.
Really. In what way? I need specifics.
Forgive my cynicism, but I read this statement as Obama falling back on the color of his skin, even when he doesn’t believe in that as a common factor.
May 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
[...] Answer: Like all elitists, he seems to think so. Jules Crittenden takes him down one peg. [...]
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 am
Fact check, has Lord Obama ever been wrong?
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
According to the Internet his family earned 4.24 million last year. On March 8, 2008 he issued a statement on International Women’s Day which read in part: “This day is particularly meaningful to me because I’ve been shaped by the women in my life - - - - by a paternal grandmother who still lives in rural Kenya without electricity and running water; and by my extraordinary wife Michelle, who continues to make me a better man”.
I guess he is waiting for the Kenyan government to do its part for his grandmother, since it doesn’t appear he is spending any of their $4.24 million on helping the grandmother he honors so much on International Women’s Day. But he did donate a tax deductible $26,000 fto honor Rev. Wright’s ministry.
This tells me much about the man; more than enough to know that I don’t understand what is in his heart, much less his political views That is not the response of an average man toawards his grandmother who is living in poverity.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
So. Did he approximately “cling” with the rest of us unwashed peons when he was more like us?
On a tangent here, but maybe someone who has read his book can help me out …
How did his African (paternal) grandmother “shape” his life? I didn’t think he lived in Africa, and I thought biological dad bailed fairly early in his life. Heck, I probably saw my one grandmother a bit more than he saw his … and I can’t think of too many ways she “shaped” me. And I’m a female.
This is just more of the creating a “narrative” stuff that the post modernists think makes one into a person who can “relate.”
Do people really believe this stuff?
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Oops. The note I added about my “swoon” button got eaten by the html.
PS to above message:
My swoon button is definitely off.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
There are two types of person.
One has their own private jet flying their entourage across the country.
The other lives an ordinary life.
Think about that: You can either be a Presidential candidate, or you can live an ordinary life.
Presidential candidates represent approximately one or two out of every 30,000,000 Americans. This means that statistically, they are one of the most exclusive groups of people on the planet - and this includes all the fringe folks, not just those with a real chance at victory.
To send our candidates into the sleazy bars and ask them to eat a crummy hot dog to prove solidarity with the people seems, well, absurd.
On the other hand, I think what would make being a candidate interesting is exactly that - seeing how everyone lives and experiencing things with an open mind.
In short, no Presidential candidate who’s halfway serious has any right to call himself one of us as he steps back into his private jet where his Duck l’Orange is waiting.
What I think is really bad about this process is all the lying that seems to be essential. I strongly suspect this is why Fred Thompson was so reluctant to enter the race and didn’t mind leaving it.
I’d like to see Obama not lie, and admit he’s a pointy-headed intellectual type. This would have the major advantage of being honest. He is a very smart man and that’s a qualification for being President. Being a smart liar might make us another Bill Clinton.
Of course on the Democratic side, then, there is a choice between a synthetic Bill Clinton and the real Bill Clinton’s wife!
I don’t think there will be any significant doubt that John McCain will be the most honest candidate, no matter which of these two win. If you want a more or less honest candidate, seems like you got just one choice.
I don’t love McCain, but he’s looking pretty good.
D
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Give him a break. Based on the quote above, he didn’t say “average American”, he said “average voter’. By which he means the average Lefty voter, the only ones that count to a Democrat. In the primaries.
On that basis, he’s pretty accurate. From what I can read daily in the New York Times, LA Times, WaPo; and based on what I can see on Lefty blogs, his life does approximate the average (Lefty) voter. He hates America, he believes that government, especially a government run by him, will be the answer to everything he hates about America, and he doesn’t mind listening to (and having his children listen to) a vehemently racist person go on and on about why he is right in his hatred of America.
Sounds like his life approximates the life of all the Lefty voters I know.
May 4th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
Where did this idea that Obama is particularly intelligent come from? He doesn’t behave like an intelligent man.