No More Mr. Nice Elitist

Bud-swilling Obama will connect with blue-collar votes if it kills him, Dowd writes
By Kate Rockwood,  Newser Staff
Posted May 4, 2008 12:31 PM CDT
No More Mr. Nice Elitist
Barack Obama tours the Indiana High School Basketball Hall of Fame with Indiana Basketball Hall of Famers, Steven Bennett, right, and George McGinnis.    (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Barack Obama is trying his darnedest to shed the elitist vibe, writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times, ditching his dainty sips at a Pennsylvania brewery for big swigs of Bud at an Indiana VFW. But for a man of mixed race and a blue-collar upbringing, it’s proving a surprisingly hard image to shake.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is getting down and dirty, with a union supporter decrying her opponent as one of the “Gucci-wearing, latte-drinking, self-centered, egotistical people that have damaged our lifestyle.” But, concludes Dowd, perhaps for a man who's worked his whole life to smooth out his rough spots, "It’s doubly hard to be who you’ve strived not to be." (More Barack Obama stories.)

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