We’ve all heard all the arguments about how Barack Obama is an elitist. Being a professor of Constitutional law certainly does make him part of an elite, but that is exactly the type of elitist we need after eight years of George Bush. If people find being an elitist to be a reason not to vote for someone, they might look at this description of John McCain written by Matthew Yglesias:
John McCain is an all-American regular guy who, like most people, earns his keep by marrying an heiress. Like average, everyday folks the McCain’s rely on credit cards to make ends meet month-to-month “Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another, while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.” Yes it’s true, one of McCain’s dependent children spent approximately the median annual household income of the United States in a single month and that’s how McCain knows how to connect with regular people.
Similarly, Mrs. McCain “favors suits made by the German designer Escada, which typically retail for around $3,000 a pop” so she understands that most Americans welcome Wal-Mart’s discount prices. And like many Americans, the McCains are very effected by developments in the real estate market, since “trusts and corporations controlled by her and her children spent nearly $11 million between the summer of 2004 and February 2008 on three condominiums in Phoenix and a pair outside San Diego.” The McCains understand that these days many young people graduate from college saddled with debt and need a helping hand, that’s why they spent “$700,000 for a 1,900-square foot, three-bedroom loft condo for her then-22-year-old daughter Meghan McCain” after she graduated from Columbia. Similarly, they know all about problems with inflation since they “increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns.”
I don’t really care if he married a rich woman. I backed a candidate in 2004 in a similar situation. I also don’t care how wealthy they are and while I have many reasons not to vote for John McCain, these are not among the reasons. However, for anyone who has any qualms about voting for Barack Obama because of claims that he is an elitist. there’s even stronger reasons not to vote for John McCain. He’s far more of an elitist, but without the understanding of Constitutional law that an elitist university professor like Obama has.