VoxOrion wrote:Swish - I think what you describe goes to something a lot of conservative commentators talk about: In the post-war era, Americans don't really mind the wealthy elite, but cultiral elite status really gets to them. I think it's ironic that the left tends toward class demagoguery (for which conservatives cry "Marxism!") and don't actually seem to get as much traction as they would like from it - meanwhile the conservatives demagoug cultural elitism and a) get away with it and b) have much greater success with it. The examples you provide of Kerry and Gore apply well, I think Dukakis falls here (and Clinton notirously was immune - his Rhodes Scholar status, for example, was received as a plus not a negative).
Clinton was immune because he was genuinely comfortable eating corndogs and donuts at county fairs and never was embarrassed by his modest upbringing. I don't think people have a problem with elites, they have a problem with snobs. As Chris Rock once said Bill Clinton has real people problems.
I also think what helps a lot is having a sense of humor about yourself--to appear not to take yourself too seriously.
If I were Obama, I'd try to be caught smoking a few times in the next few weeks.
