Elitism is the belief or attitude that those individuals who are considered members of the elite — a select group of people with outstanding personal abilities, intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most weight; whose views and/or actions are most likely to be constructive to society as a whole; or whose extraordinary skills, abilities or wisdom render them especially fit to govern. Alternatively, the term elitism may be used to describe a situation in which power is concentrated in the hands of the elite.

We’ve heard the term “Country Club Republican” whose characteristics are attributed to: Higher than average income or wealth, lack of sympathy with lower income citizens, and liberal views on abortion, gay rights, and other social issues.  They are also said to put less value on religion, and to have attended more prestigious colleges than most other Republican Party members.

We call the “class” of “Country Club Republicans “RINOs” (Republicans in Name Only) and we find the term “elitist” pompous and self-serving, tainted with arrogance and lacking in real American backbone.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild writes:

“If Barack Obama loses the presidential election, it may well be the result of a public perception that he is detached and elitist — a politician whose expressions of empathy for hard-working Americans stem more from abstract solidarity than a real connection to the lives of millions of citizens.

Despite Mr. Obama’s assertions that his campaign is about “you,” much of his campaign is, in fact, all about him. In the months since the primaries ended, his creation and display of a mock presidential seal with his name on it, his speech at a mass rally at the Prussian Victory Column in Berlin, and his insistence on delivering his acceptance speech in front of fabricated Greek columns in a stadium holding 80,000 chanting supporters have crossed the thin line that separates galvanizing voters and plain old demagoguery.”

Barack Hussein Obama now finds himself campaigning against Sarah Palin, someone not like him, someone without the “elitist” tag, someone with backbone and heart who see the world, not with a mirror, but with a large dose of reality.

Obama is now using slurs to combat a Vice-Presidential candidate with added swipes at the Presidential candidate and his opponent. The press has led the way because they want to be a part of the “elitist” crowd even if many of them aren’t wealthy or graduates of the Ivy League.

Foreign “elitists” have chimed in against Mrs. Palin:

Mrs. Palin, with “her churchgoer’s smile” and her hillbilly family with their hillbilly names, was a “soap opera . . . too implausible even for day-time television” wrote Anne Davies in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“A race that began as the ‘West Wing’ now looks alarmingly like ‘Desperate Housewives,’” said Jonathan Freedland in Britain’s Guardian newspaper.

Janet Albrechtsen, columnist for the Australian, writes: 

“Anti-Americanism explains why foreign liberals detest Mrs. Palin. Her rising popularity across America has rudely confirmed that not all Americans care about the preferred presidential pick of the international left-liberal community. Barack Obama is their anti-American dream candidate, a man who is part of their project to bring America, the great Satan, to heel. After all, he never spoke about the possibility of victory in Iraq. Only American withdrawal and defeat.”

Obama’s “elitist” education doesn’t show in his current demeanor and is opposite of the class and dignity John McCain portrays in public. Mr. McCain has called for decency in his campaign; many will say his surrogates are “attacking” Obama for him. Politics is not pretty and Mr. Obama has now resorted to personal attacks in his town hall meetings because his true worth and lack of class has come out.

Ms. Albrechtsen notes:

“To be sure, much of the hysteria from the left wing in Australia mirrors the leftist frenzy within the U.S. Mrs. Palin was always going to upset the global sisterhood for not being the right kind of careerist woman. She is a happy feminist who doesn’t moan about female victimhood. She loves to shoot moose but is not a fan of aborting babies. That you should be opposed to hunting animals but in favor of abortion on demand is an international article of the feminist faith.”

The media leftists are so beside themselves over Mrs. Palin they can’t hide their disgust in the headlines:

Crashing Palinpalooza – Michelle Cottle, The New Republic; Palin Doesn’t Matter, Numbers Do – Bob Beckel, RealClearPolitics; Sarah Palin’s Myth of America – Joe Klein, Time; ‘Pit Bull’ Palin Raises Biting Questions – Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune; Don’t Be Swept Away By the Palin Hype – Jerry Lanson, CS Monitor; McCain and Palin Are Lying – Paul Begala, Huffington Post; Palin Signals Fewer Choices for Women – Dahlia Lithwick, Newsweek; Palin, Muslim Fundamentalists Are One and the Same – Juan Cole, Salon; GOP Suddenly Finds Its Inner Feminist – Anna Quindlen, Newsweek —and the sexist beat goes on.

“A self-declared “hockey mom” educated at a no-name university, a former beauty queen who used to broadcast the local sports news surely cannot aspire to be vice president. The provincial Mrs. Palin is the perfect proxy-without-borders for the universal disdain metropolitan elites harbor toward those allegedly less sophisticated than themselves.” continues Ms. Albrechtsen.

John McCain can genuinely point to at least one crucial moment in his life when elitism went by the boards. Because John McCain’s father was a high-ranking Navy Admiral, he was offered freedom from a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp. Mr. McCain refused, saying that he would leave only when every prisoner who had been captured before him was also released.

Barack Hussein Obama who didn’t serve in the military certainly would have packed his bags and abandoned the Hanoi Hilton to join his brother in “elitism” John Kerry and the Winter Soldiers.

Obama’s candidacy for President is about elitism and all about him. The media elites, Liberal elites and foreign elites are all fawning over one of their own. Indeed!