Obama & US Elections: Paying the Price of Elitism?

In the coming weeks the pundits will pontificate why Barack Obama and the Democrats were rudely jolted by the American voters in the mid-term polls. I found Peter Baker’s piece “Elitism: The Charge Obama Can’t Shake” (in the NYT last week) interesting.

“…a perception promoted by his critics that he is a Harvard-educated millionaire elitist who is sure that he knows best and thinks that those who disagree just aren’t in their right minds. Never mind that Mr. Obama was raised in less exalted circumstances by a single mother who he said once needed food stamps. Or that although he went to private school, he took years to pay off his college loans.” More here…

I also enjoyed reading the article by Clarence B. Jones, Scholar in Residence, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. “Sometime and some place during the past two years, Obama stopped listening to the variety of music being played by ordinary people about the day to day condition of their lives.

“Announcements of various domestic programs as if from Zeus or the Oracle of Delphi that did not result in near term tangible kitchen table benefits, that materially and perceptibly changed the day to day condition of their lives were not validation of the Hope and Change they had been asked to believe in.

“Either the president or his advisors stopped listening or, in the case of Obama, his hearing became so severely damaged that instead of his prior ‘perfect pitch,’ he is now virtually tone deaf. Otherwise, why would he and his advisors keep repeating that their problem is in the ‘communication’ of their message, not the message? Now this is really upsetting.

“It means that neither Obama, his cabinet and White House advisors understand that their problem of communication is a problem with the message…” More here…

And then there was Chris Matthews on MSNBC: “…Roosevelt had to explain everything. You have to take people along with you. I think he’s (Obama’s) guilty of the elitist charge. If you are going to spend $1.6 trillion deficit in one year, you have to explain to the American people why you did it. he never explained economics the way you were taught it…” More here…

Christopher Hitchens in Slate.com: “Having many reservations of my own about the President, I would nonetheless have relished the chance to support him in such an effort, as would many of my friends. But one can’t indefinitely do for somebody what he is reluctant to do for himself. And, of course, Obama’s reticence managed somehow to confirm the image of him as a glacial elitist — a man who would hardly deign to pass comment on the rubes and proles…” See here…

Meanwhile, “all eyes will be on Obama Wednesday at 1 p.m. EST, when he holds a press conference in the East Room of the White House. Tuesday night, Obama phoned both Congressman Boehner and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to say he was looking forward to working with them and the Republicans ‘to find common ground, move the country forward, and get things done for the American people,’ according to the White House.” See here…