Who’s Really the Elitist?

After Barack Obama’s well-publicized “guns and religion” comments in regards to folks in Pennsylvania, both Senators Hillary Clinton and John McCain were quick to attack Obama for being a supposed elitist. What I find interesting is that while McCain and Clinton attack Obama for being an elitist, they aren’t exactly the salt of the earth themselves. Ben Brothers over at Badger Blues sums it up best when discussing John McCain:

One candidate is the a son of a famous father. He divorced his first wife in order to marry a wealthy beer heiress, and then used his second wife’s money to go into politics. He’s running on a platform that offers huge tax cuts for wealthy heiresses, and “adversity builds character” for everyone else.

Ben’s right on the money, but I’d go a step further and add the following:

The other candidate came from a family of means. Following her husband’s presidency, she received a near-record advance of $8 million for her memoirs, and she used her husband’s name recognition and fundraising connections to win a race to become New York’s junior Senator. In the last ten years her household income has exceeded more than 109 million dollars.

The reality here is that despite all their spin that Obama is an elitist, he’s the least wealthy of the three candidates – or at least of the three he has the least access to significant amounts of marital wealth – and his background is perhaps the most modest of the three candidates.