“You’re Out of Touch. No, You Are.”
Paybacks can be a…well, you know.
John McCain should have known that the Obama team was just waiting to pounce after his “Celebrity” ad, and pounced they did after his gaffe on not knowing how many houses he owns.
Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post notes how both parties try very hard to paint the other as out-of-touch with the common man. McCain and the GOP have been hitting hard to tar Obama as another elitist liberal, while Obama has started to paint McCain as a fat cat that doesn’t care about the poor or working class.
Politicians try to show how they are in line with the common person. While I would say that it is important that leaders have some sympathy and/or empathy with the average Joe, it is somewhat silly to pretend that these politicians, most of whom are well-to-do, are just like us. They aren’t. But we are willing to play along.
Does it matter that McCain has seven homes, or that Obama likes to eat arugula? No. Does it show that they are out of touch? Not really. McCain has worked on legislation like a patient’s bill of rights and Obama was a community organizer. They both have some understanding of the plight of the common person, even if they don’t live the life of a common person (whatever that is).
I think what matters more is what they have done, not what kind of car they drive or whether they get their coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts.
Two of our best Presidents, who happen to share a last name, were good at empathizing with the working person without having lived the life. Both Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, cousins who were from opposing parties and philosophies, were men of wealth and yet they both had concerns about the average American.
Both campaigns will try to paint the other as a snob, that’s politics. But the true measure of the candidate is not these measures, but what they have done that shows they care and what they will do once in office.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if a pol is in the elite or not. What matters is what they do with it.
5 Responses to ““You’re Out of Touch. No, You Are.””
Apparently McCain's next move will be a hit piece on Obama and Rezko.
McCain (and the GOP) can't expect to win just by saying he is Not Obama (Not the Democrats). Obama doesn't stupidly base his campaign on being Not Bush.
Yeah, this is payback by Obama. And boy oh boy, is it long overdue. And the nice thing is that unlike McCain's attacks on Obama, this one is fact-based. McCain is either fudging or is frighteningly forgetful about a pretty basic fact.
But hand-wringing about how awful and anti-intellectual these attacks on rich elitists misses the point. The GOP has now used this line in every election since 1988. That is 20 years. And the Democrats have now lost MULTIPLE national elections trying to brush this stuff aside.
Furthermore, these themes have deep roots that go back into the 1830's in American politics.
So … of COURSE this snobbery stuff is not the measure of a candidate! But how a candidate reacts to it is pretty darned revealing.
“McCain is either fudging or is frighteningly forgetful about a pretty basic fact.”
This is more important than his being a Phatt Khatt out of touch with the public at large insofar as the economy is concerned (something we saw with Bush's father in the early 1990s, don't forget). How can McCain not know how many homes he has?
It's the Left that has the true elitism (ideological as well as being far to the left of the US public), in activist “progressive” circles and within their peers in media (no matter how much the liberal bias is falsely denied), government, and academia. In many cases (as some such as Superdestroyer have noted repeatedly), they are also affluent to quite wealthy, and have little true concern with The People [tm] other than to buy their votes and to expect their allegiance (which explains the Surly Loser resentful to reactionary behavior among so many lefties, including on this site, that we have seen since the 1980 election of Reagan). What's illuminating and instructive, too, perhaps, is that the Obama plan for raising more revenue for Social Security includes a payroll tax levy above $250,000 annually (no word on if he will increase their future benefits, as he should). But — note — he leaves free from taxes the range from approximately 90 thousand to 250 thousand, precisely where the great number of his affluent, largely white, progressive fans are to be found — who believe themselves superior to those who don't believe as they do, for whom the “progressives” frequently have contempt…as well as demonstrating other elitist behaviors.
As to what matters most, if they really matter, the economic slam on McCain is more substantial than an unsurprising charge of elitism among Obama and many of his fans, which would be true for any liberal Democrat. Plus Obama is adept while McCain is inept these days.
The charge sticks not just because McCain is rich, but because he came into his wealth through marriage, knows nothing about his own family's assets (unlike people who actually worked hard for their wealth and know damn well how rich they are), and consequently knows or cares nothing about the economy. That's the link Obama is drawing here.
It isn't his wealth that makes him elite or elitist. It's his ignorance of the scale of his own wealth. Ironically, Obama has turned McCain into a trust fund kid who lives the high life on somebody else's dollar.
And McCain wants to give more tax cuts to people like him, while our debt soars.