(Newser)
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The Republicans have been unrelenting in their attempts to paint Barack Obama as an elitist—pretty rich stuff, writes Times columnist Maureen Dowd, coming from a party led by a Connecticut-born "Richie Rich" whose daddy has bailed out his snide self time and again. The cosseted conservatives' "hypocritical comedy" might have worked in the past, but not this time, Dowd warns.
Dowd singles out Karl Rove, who took time out from his "corncob pipe" and "professional wrestling" to compare Obama to "the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.” But assailing a candidate as smart, successful, and sophisticated isn't a winning strategy, she argues—on the contrary, those are "traits that people in the population aspire to."