What deep pockets say
When the history of this strange and soon-to-be-concluded Democratic primary season is written, let it be noted that the candidate whose income was modest (in political-class terms) until his books became bestsellers was somehow framed as the representative of the elite — while the one who was able to dip into her own personal coffers to fund her campaign to the tune of $6 million succeeded, with a little help from the media, in casting herself as a woman of the people.
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May 7th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Fact is they’re both snobs. Neither one is “of the people.” And you know it.
May 7th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Anyone who is in the US Senate is very much a part of the ruling class. I’m with you on that. (”Snob” to me means something else entirely.)
But only one of these two candidates can dip into her pockets for $6M. And I’m sorry, but it’s funny and strange that she is the one who assumed the mantle of “the little people” this season.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
There’s a lot to unpack here, and lord knows the campaign coverage has been horrid as usual, but I think this particular point is not quite what you’re making it out to be. Obama really does appeal to the real socioeconomic groups often labelled as “liberal elites” — coastal, overeducated, socially very liberal, diverse in acquaintances — and Clinton really does appeal more to the group labelled as “real Americans” or “the Heartland”: non-coastal, moderate, older, Protestant. It is outrageous that the media consider my gay African-American atheist attorney friend who voted for Obama from San Francisco “less American” than my white Lutheran inlaws from small-town Texas who voted for Clinton, but the problem is the characterization of THEM, not of the basically accurate assesment of who they voted for.
May 8th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Don’t forget the candidate who has 8 houses!
May 11th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
It is indeed a sick twist of irony for the Clintons (pick your poison) to be considered more appealing to middle-America. Perhaps if she wins she can bring back the items she stole from the White House 8 years ago.
The one thing that I predict will hold Obama back in this regard is his wife, who, by all accounts, truly seems to regard herself and her husband as being above all others.
As a tangent, his association with Mr. Wright speaks to this also.