So Obama is in all kinds of hot water because he said that there was bitterness in the working class of Pennsylvania, saying that workers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere who have seen factories shut down “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them.” These sentiments are generating all manner of controversy, although since my understanding is that the remarks were made in private, I find the violation of confidences to be more alarming.
Clinton is blasting Obama, saying his comments smack of “elitism.” Newsday reported that one Democratic strategist in Washington, asserted, “Mistakes like this make superdelegates nervous. … You cannot be elected president of the United States if you think you’re smarter than everyone. People pick up on that.”
Here’s what I don’t get: Why is that a bad thing?
What’s wrong with a president believing he’s smarter than everyone? Or at least smarter than most people? What’s wrong with someone being elitist? Why shouldn’t the President of the United States be the best and the brightest, and know that he or she is and be proud of that fact? We’ve had a proud dunce for seven years now; does anyone REALLY think we’re better off for it?
It’s no wonder that people are distrustful of politicians, but really, we’ve brought it on ourselves. We have a situation wherein this country’s anti-intellectualism has become so pervasive, so suffocating, that we have multi-millionaire Ivy league graduates trying to pretend they’re just plain folks when clearly they’re not. And people know they’re not. This country was founded by men who knew they were the best and brightest, and the citizenry took pride and comfort in that. But television has put politicians into peoples’ homes, and now we just want someone we’re comfortable with. We don’t want men and women who come across like professors; we want the guy who sat in the back of the class and goofs off, as if life was a sitcom. To put it in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” terms, we should want to elect Mr. Hand; instead we opt for Jeff Spicoli.
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