Thom Hartmann: Reclaim the Media: Bring Back the Elites

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/17575

Reclaim the Media: Bring Back the Elites
by Thom Hartmann | September 30, 2008



MSNBC's Chris Matthews Friday suggested that Barack Obama is "elite" in part because Obama was wearing sunglasses:

"Can Barack Obama, a man of elite education if not elite background, break into the middle class and talk regular? Can he talk to regular people in their kitchens tonight, in their living rooms?

<...>

Everybody thinks Barack is too cool. In other words, there he is with the shades, getting on the plane. A little bit too elegant, a little bit too proud of his own bearing. Is that a problem, that he's just too cool for words. In other words, elite."

Chris Matthews is wrong.

America loves its elites -- we love our sports stars, our movie stars, our rock stars and even our political stars.

John Kennedy was an elite. He came from an elite family, had an elite education, and he had the calm demeanor and the good fashion of a man who knew he was part of the intellectual and political elite. Americans didn't just love him they lionized him calling his administration Camelot -- the story of an elite king in an elite time.

If George W Bush has taught us one lesson, it's that the god-awful consequences of having the guy you want to have beer with running the most complex, powerful, and massive institution in the world, the US Government, is a terrible mistake.

John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy in June 1958; he was fifth from the bottom, 894th out of 899. He has no training at law. Sarah Palin attended 5 schools before getting a degree from North Idaho College that qualified her to be a TV sportscaster. North Idaho College takes pride in its "open-door" admissions policy. She also has no training at law.

Most of our great presidents have been trained in law from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to Lincoln to FDR and Clinton. Bush and Cheney have no legal training and we were told how great the MBA presidency would be.

It's been a disaster.

Barack Obama got his BA from Columbia University in New York and his JD from Harvard. While at Harvard he was president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. He was a professor of constitutional low at the University of Chicago. Joe Biden similarly has a JD degree.

It's time for an Elite presidency. It's time for the best and the brightest to once again lead this nation.
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[StreetKnowledge]

1. There is a point about elites being bad.....

.....but my kinda elite problem is those self-obsessed idiots who wanna $700 Billion bailout after screwing us all over for eight friggin' years. You obviously want intelligent leaders, but not arrogant ones. Hence, Barack Obama and Joe Biden work - two very intelligent men with a firm grasp of the world.

Should American elect them? Absolutely. The MBA president follows the MBA line - profit right now is king, everything else is secondary. Hence Iraq, the financial crisis, the subprime mortgage scandal which shouldn't have happened, job losses in many sectors, free trade with red China......you get the picture.

[babylonsister]

2. I do get the picture, and welcome to DU, StreetKnowledge. nt

[Igel]

3. He botched it at the end.

Americans have a mixed relationship to their elites.

It depends on the nature of the "gift" (money, birth, athletic prowess or other talent, etc.) and adversity encountered in taking advantage of the "gift", whether we vicariously identify with the lifestyle or feel jealousy/envy, and, most importantly, on the attitude of the person involved.

We're pretty unequivocal in our dispising elitists.

Fist bap: commoner, pretty much whoever does it. Diminishes "elitist" quotient. "Cling to God and guns" increases "elitist" quotient.

Too aloof? Smacks not of being elite, but being elitist.

As for an "elite presidency", how about a Wall Street banker? Money also confers "elite-hood".


JFK wasn't a lawyer, but was elite by birth and by virtue of money, for instance. FDR was a lawyer, but dropped out of law school because he passed the bar; he was a corporate lawyer. On the other hand, there are lots of lawyers; it's no longer an elite profession, except for the upper reaches. Now, "constitutional scholar" would be elite, but none of those are running for office.

[hay rick]

4. It's a complex world.

I want somebody who is smarter and/or more knowledgeable than me in the White House. Preferably a lot smarter. A guy who finished 5th from the bottom of his class and a hockey mom? I really believe I can do the job better than either one of them. Get'em outahere!

[OakCliffDem]

5. Tweety needs to get out of the way

Real Liberal Democrats are coming through, and we don't need Chris Matthews fighting the battles from the primaries during the general

[meow2u3]

6. The elite has been running the country all along

It all depends on which elite we want running the country: the money elite or the intellectual elite? We Dems want the guys and gals with the biggest brains and hearts running the country--not those with the biggest bank accounts, which the Repubs seem to want. In other words: brains (without money) elite = good; money (brains not necessary) elite = bad.

The best and the brightest will more likely than not come up with solutions to the economic problems the money elite got us into. whereas, based on what we've seen in the past 3 decades, the predominantly Republican money elite have sought more money and power for themselves and their peers. When the repubs talk of "cutting your taxes", they're not talking about the average Joe or Jane. They're addressing Mr. and Mrs. Fat Cat.

[dhpgetsit]

7. It is an attitude the Fearful Freepers are working very hard to manufacture.

People don't form those opinions naturally. They are planted, whether the people that hold them realize it or not.