NY Times' Gail Collins: Obama "can be disturbingly Ivy League"
Echoing other media figures who have asserted that Sen. Barack Obama appeals primarily to elites or have questioned whether Obama can connect to certain socioeconomic groups, The New York Times' Gail Collins stated that Obama "can be disturbingly Ivy League."
In her April 10 New York Times column, Gail Collins stated that Sen. Barack Obama "can be disturbingly Ivy League." Collins made this assertion while discussing a television ad running in Pennsylvania for Sen. Hillary Clinton, in which Clinton says, "I was raised on pinochle and the American Dream." Collins wrote:
It would never occur to either of the other candidates to link their childhoods to a card game and the American Dream. Obama, who can be disturbingly Ivy League, would probably think the pinochle part was cheesy. [Sen. John] McCain wouldn't bring the Dream up. The idea that you came from humble folk who had faith that their children could aspire to something better does not really float if you're the offspring of two generations of four-star admirals.
Media Matters for America has documented several examples of media figures asserting that Obama appeals primarily to elites or questioning whether Obama can connect to certain socioeconomic groups. For example, during the April 1 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews asked Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO): "Let me ask you about how he -- how's he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?" Earlier in the show, referring to Obama's bowling performance at a March 29 campaign stop in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Matthews teased the segment with McCaskill by asking, "[C]an Obama woo more regular voters -- you know, the ones who actually do know how to bowl?"
Further, on the February 11 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, senior political correspondent Candy Crowley said that the "affluent, well-educated white voters" who were part of "Obama's voting bloc" were the "so-called latte liberals." And, during Fox News' coverage of February 9 caucuses and primaries, U.S. News & World Report senior writer Michael Barone suggested that Obama would do well among "latte liberals." Moments later, co-host Alan Colmes challenged Barone's description: "Is there -- are there latte conservatives? I'm just curious. Do they -- conservatives may like that drink, too. It's a very lovely drink." Barone responded: "Well, I think it seems to be a pretty universal drink these days."
In addition, a September 24, 2007, Chicago Tribune article stated that Obama has had more success among "wine-track" voters -- characterized by "higher incomes and more education" -- than he has among "beer-track" voters, who have less education and "tend[] to care more about pocketbook issues."
From Collins' April 10 New York Times column:
One purpose of the ad is to point out that although the Clinton family may be raking in beaucoup bucks now, Hillary's roots were humble. Her Pennsylvanian grandfather worked in a lace factory. The Rodham vacation house had no heat or indoor shower, and according to Carl Bernstein's biography, as Hillary grew up she began to lose enthusiasm for those long summers on Lake Winola.
Nevertheless, her ties to that state are certainly stronger than they were in New York when she first announced for Senate and attempted to summon up warm memories of childhood visits to rest stops along the interstate. And all's fair in campaign mythmaking. When Kansas was in play, Barack Obama visited his ancestral hometown of El Dorado with great fanfare -- even though he had never set foot there before.
It would never occur to either of the other candidates to link their childhoods to a card game and the American Dream. Obama, who can be disturbingly Ivy League, would probably think the pinochle part was cheesy. McCain wouldn't bring the Dream up. The idea that you came from humble folk who had faith that their children could aspire to something better does not really float if you're the offspring of two generations of four-star admirals.
Anyway, this pinochle diversion couldn't have come at a better time. Things have been getting a little slow on the campaign trail. Setting aside six weeks of preparation for the Pennsylvania primary turns out to have been a little excessive.
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Can't see it as "disturbingly", a little bit of hyperbole and an exaggeration for for this Times' writer to label it as such.
The family's vacation home had no heat or indoor shower.
I'll bet they had no Xmas goose either.
Sounds Dickensian to me. No indentured servitude or wicked nannies?
Why all we had was one oar. We could only go in circles.
(I feel this thread devolving into a Python sketch.)
Silver lining Dept: Whatever else happens during this election cycle, one piece of this item stands out. Imagine going back 50 years and telling those most outspoken about treating black people as subhuman, that in 2008, a black man would be running for president.
And one of his biggest stumbling blocks would be proving to the American public that he was no that much more sophisticated and intelligent than the white candidates.
Ha! Great point!
It really is sad that a prestigious education, intelligence, and sophistication are liabilities in running for president.
Umm.....10, its kind of worn. Oh yah I forgot I't's the same size as my head.
Out terror the terrorist's! Go Ming!!
Obama, who can be disturbingly Ivy League
What exactly is that supposed to mean? Is that code for "uppity"?
Bet he covers his mouth when he burps too.
We don't need any effette cryptoislamanofascist as a president. We need an alien with a track record of tyranny, personal hygene, and allaround meglomania.
GOO! MING!!
You want imperialism, we'll give you *%#!:^&) imperialism!
Ming? Ming the Merciless? Nah, the way he dresses? No way, not a viable candidate at all!
http://www.movievillains.com/archives/2003/11/ming_the_mercil.html
While some might consider his wardrobe off mainstream. Proper marketing can easily overcome this and can indeed make it seem to be popular and exciting. A peacock in a sea of black and brown! Terms like wardrobe challenged should be avoided.
GOOO! MING!!
Watch our spaceships go wound and wound and be vewy afwaid....Jorge.
We need an alien with a track record of tyranny, personal hygene, and allaround megalomania.
Great. I think you just described Alf.
Hillary's roots were humble. The Rodham vacation house had no heat or indoor shower, and according to Carl Bernstein's biography, as Hillary grew up she began to lose enthusiasm for those long summers on Lake Winola.
Sorry Gail but the thinking about poor Hillary's "vacation home" when a lot of folks in Pennsylvania are trying to hold on to their ONLY homes seems a little "Ivy League" IMO.
I'm better now. This is such a sad story about Hillary's impoverished youth.
I grew up in a city in PA and most of the people in my neighborhood not only didn't own vacation homes, they didn't take vacations. To a lot of the kids vacation meant getting someone to turn on a fire hydrant at the corner. And vacations for the fathers meant just working one of their jobs.
And we considered ourselves blessed.
What the hell was Gail Collins thinking when she wrote those lines?
An outhouse? Pretty sweet, Little Lord Fauntleroy. I had a cliff.
You had a cliff?...
What the hell was Gail Collins thinking when she wrote those lines?
What the hell, was Gail Collins thinking when she wrote those lines?
the Rodham vacation house had no heat or indoor shower
Wow, my vacation house growing up had no heat or shower either, of course it came folded up in a bag with some aluminum poles and a couple stakes.
This kinda reminds me of this Monty Python sketch
"you were lucky to have a room, we used to live in the corridor"
Remind me to read the whole thread before commenting on earlier posts.
So much for "disturbingly Ivy League:"
Is it just me, or is the conservative line perhaps closer to a Producerist Weltanschauung?
"I'd rather be governed by the first five hundred names in the New York City phone book than by the faculty of Harvard."
--Wm. F. Buckley
Does this fake bonding with the mythical common average Joe America ever get old? The bowling thing, "disturbingly Ivy League," "looks presidential" and on are not valid commentary. They are codes for "trust us elite to guide you stupid stupid middle Americans." And what is most sickening about the whole thing is the ones using it are accusing other people of being the elitis snobs.
Tell me exactly how a man could ever be too smart or too educated to be the President of the United States. We already know that a man can be far too ignorant and uneducated for the job.
Gail Collins is trying to use against Obama the same pseudo-populism used to undermine John Kerry.
Instead of stories that John Kerry isn't a regular guy because he enjoys wind-surfing, it's stories that Barack Obama supposedly wouldn't talk about card games.
Don't forget now. Kerry apparently had the audacity to order provolone cheese on his cheesesteak in Philly in 2004 instead of the god awful Cheez Whiz they slap on there.
Oh, and he "looks" French. Don't forget that one.
what is truly disturbing is that a New York Times columnist can't come up with a better topic than this nonsense. She had all week.
Am I missing something here?
Besides a brain and facts? No
At least John can drink some of his wife's beer CB. I missed that snark in 2004 is it new?
Go Ming!!
LFS, I've got a feeling you ain't seen nothing yet.
(That's from the Beatles/BTO duets album)
"Disturbingly" Ivy League? It is true that of the candidates still offically recognzied by the media as being in the race, he is the only whose college's football and basketball teams plays in the Ivy League. However, McCain & Clinton also went to prestigious colleges: McCain to the US Naval Academy and Hillary Clinton to Wellesley College (which actually doesn't have a football team, although it does have a basketball team.) Mrs. Clinton also went to the Yale Law School, and Yale is an Ivy League school.
There are at least four other national figures who are still running at least somewhat serious Presidential campaigns, even though they are not officially acknowledged as being candidates, and they are all Ivy Leaguers. Libertarians Mike Gravel and Wayne Root are Columbia men. Ralph Nader is a Princeton man. Alan Keyes is a Harvard man (who transferred from Cornell.)
Wonder if this will disturb any lefty sensiblilites as Obama bridges the racial divide.....while making some supporters sit in the back of bus!
From a recent campaign stop for Mrs. Obama in Pittsburgh:
“I’ve been here since 11 a.m. setting up and it’s been amazing. It feels like [Barack] Obama is coming,” said sophomore social and decision sciences major Rotimi Abimbola, a leader of Students for Obama who had only a few days to coordinate the event.
While the crowd was indeed diverse, some students at the event questioned the practices of Mrs. Obama’s event coordinators, who handpicked the crowd sitting behind Mrs. Obama. The Tartan’s correspondents observed one event coordinator say to another, “Get me more white people, we need more white people.” To an Asian girl sitting in the back row, one coordinator said, “We’re moving you, sorry. It’s going to look so pretty, though.”
“I didn’t know they would say, ‘We need a white person here,’ ” said attendee and senior psychology major Shayna Watson, who sat in the crowd behind Mrs. Obama. “I understood they would want a show of diversity, but to pick up people and to reseat them, I didn’t know it would be so outright.”
The whole article: http://www.thetartan.org/2008/4/7/news/obama
If not Ivy League, what league then Barak? Bush League?
I thought this website searched for MISSinformation. The real question is is it true or not that Obama appeals more to elites than regular folk?
As for this being a fair question, I bet no one here complained when Gov Ann Richards of TX said Bush 1 was "born with a silver foot in his mouth" or when it was said he doesn't connect with the common man. I guess only Republicans are elitists, say it about a Democrat and everyone cries foul.
Looks like common sense posts always kill these threads.
Media Matters says its purpose is: "comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media." I don't see any misinformation here.
I don't think questioning if Barack can connect with voters of a certain segment is biased. Remember when all of the media outlets were asking if McCain could connect with religious conservatives? Is that an example of liberal bias?
The sound you hear is the wind going out of Barry's campaign in Pennsylvania, maybe all over.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
First we have Michelle's need for more white people (instead of an American flag?) now Obama's elitest views of mainstream, small town America. This is getting good!