By Andrew Cline on 4.14.08 @ 12:06AM
Elite friends rally to Obama's side.
After condescending comments he made about regular Americans
were made public on Friday, Sen. Barack Obama endured one of his
most difficult and trying weekends since the start of his
presidential campaign more than a year ago. He survived the ordeal,
aides and close friends say, by turning for solace to the sense of
elitism and general superiority over others that has sustained him
for much of his life.
For the past two days Obama has taken a beating by the Clinton
campaign for remarks he made in San Francisco, in which he said
many Americans who have lost jobs have "gotten bitter and cling to
guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or
anti-immigrant sentiment or antitrade sentiment as a way to explain
their frustrations."
"It's been a very difficult time for him," said a friend from
Harvard Law School who said he and Obama used to enjoy riding the
Boston subway while wearing their Harvard sweatshirts just to make
the other passengers feel inferior. "I called him up and reminded
him that he went to the most prestigious law school in the world,
has written two best-sellers, is richer than 99 percent of
Americans, and has a vocabulary that most Ivy League literature
professors would envy, and that made him feel a lot better."
Aides say Obama spent Saturday night with supporter Sen. John
Kerry over a meal of duck a l'orange and a fine pinot
noir.
"I understand what it is like to have one's elitism so painfully
exposed before the Plebian hordes," Sen. Kerry said in an
interview. "Senator Obama and I share this unfortunate distinction,
in addition to our natural eloquence, sonorous voices, tall,
slender physiques, Ivy League educations, and taste for outspoken,
domineering women who dress us in pretty clothes and make us go
shopping with them. I assured him that this ordeal would pass, and
I recommended that he take the night off and watch something on the
Sundance Channel. Enjoying a pretentious art film that most
Americans find offensive and inaccessible always makes me forget my
troubles."
Aides tried to buck up the senator by buying him an expensive
and entirely useless trinket from The Sharper Image, but the
senator had already beaten them to it, having ordered himself a
Sharper Image Orbital Lounger and a Sonic Breeze Ionic Air
Filter.
"The senator enjoys surrounding himself with consumer items that
distinguish him instantly from the type of person who would cling
to guns and nativism to get through hard times," an aide
explained.
Obama also turned inward, quietly reminding himself that he must
win the nomination and the election so he can enact government
policies that protect people from their own uninformed or simply
stupid decisions.
"That was a real comfort to him," an aide said. "When you're
down on yourself, there's nothing like remembering why you're a
progressive in the first place and reminding yourself that the
masses need an intelligent, compassionate parental figure like
yourself to take care of them."
topics:
Education, Trade, Barack Obama, Religion, Law, NATO
