Will "elitist" label stick to Obama?

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/04/16/elitism/index.html

The above article captures, i believe, very much the essence of what we have been examining, articulating the paradoxical and slippery nature of political intelligence expectations in America.

First off, the irony-in contemplating and publicly analysing what they call "a potentially toxic image problem" the author Kristi Keck is arguably engaging- at least to an extent- in exactly the elitism on which she comments.

Keck goes onto set the background for the irony that laces the issue when she reminds that, beneath anything else, the presidential office is by its very nature an elitist position.
Accusations of elitism are, notes Keck, an ever-present trap in presidential campaigning, Obama's opponents, for example, jumped on a comment about small town residents bitter over gun laws. Hillary Clinton joined in the condemnation by branding Obama "elitist, out of touch, and frankly patronising".

Yet Clinton herself has by turns highlighted her privelaged education, whilst also posing for publicity shots with guns and beer.

Republicans have historically made a tactic out of portraying their Democratic rivals as the "liberal elite", placing emphasis on their ability to connect to the "everyman" in America.

What makes the difference, suggests Keck, is the way that a candidate responds to such allegations- former democratic candidates Kerry and Gore failed because, she says, they allowed such a label to stick.
However, that is not to say that fighting back does not pose its own risks, as a candidate could then be branded uppity and too un-elite.

Therefore, it again comes down to-as i have mentioned in a previous post- a candidates public approval and whether voters want to look positively on a stance, a situation that appears to have served Obama well so far.

In a quote from Dr. Drew Western of Emory University, Keck sums up the crux of the situation;

"I do think it speaks to one of the conflicts that Americans have about their leaders, which is that we want them to be like us, and we want them to be above us at the same time".