An 'Average' American Never Will Be President

Can we all just stop the silly nonsense over who is an elitist and whether an "average" American will occupy the White House?

Listening to the punditry today, you would think folks who revel in the comedy of Larry The Cable Guy or Katt Williams really would have a shot at the White House. It's totally absurd.

So, Sen. Barack Obama is all of a sudden an elitist because he went to Columbia and Harvard universities? And Sen. Hillary Clinton is an elitist because she went to Yale University? Do you actually think Sen. John McCain isn't an elitist? He went to an exclusive college — the United States Naval Academy — and that is one of the hardest places to get into. (You can't even apply unless a member of Congress recommends you.)

Karl Rove, who tries to portray himself as the common man but is just another rich Republican, has called both Democratic candidates elitists. Well, his former boss, President George W. Bush, went to Yale. So did Bush's dad, former President George H.W. Bush, and his granddaddy, former Sen. Prescott Bush. All three Bushes also were members of the super-elite organization Skull and Bones. George W. later went to Harvard.

He walked into the governor's mansion and the presidency on the strength of his name and his dad's money and connections. Sounds like an elitist to me!

But no, we're supposed to be fooled by the cowboy boots, folksy charm and him removing brush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. (Don't forget the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where all the "regular" folks hang out.)

Surely you recall when Bush nominated Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court? Those same conservative voices decrying the elitist Democrats were blasting her because she went to little old Southern Methodist University, that unremarkable — their view — university in Dallas. (By the way, that will be the home of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.)

You can bet a pitcher of beer that had she graduated from Harvard, Yale or Princeton universities, she wouldn't have been referred to derisively as too plain and not educated enough by the elitists in the Republican Party.

And let's stay with the Supreme Court for a moment. Where did its members go to school?

— Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.: Undergrad and law school: Harvard.

— Justice John Paul Stevens: Undergrad: University of Chicago. Law school: Northwestern University.

— Justice Antonin Scalia: Undergrad: Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Law school: Harvard.

— Justice Anthony M. Kennedy: Undergrad: Stanford University and the London School of Economics. Law school: Harvard.

— Justice David Hackett Souter: Undergrad: Harvard; Magdalen College, Oxford; Oxford University. Law school: Harvard.

— Justice Clarence Thomas: Undergrad: Holy Cross College.

Law school: Yale.

— Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Undergrad: Cornell University. Law school: Harvard (attended); finished at Columbia.

— Justice Stephen G. Breyer: Undergrad: Stanford; Magdalen College, Oxford. Law school: Harvard.

— Justice Samuel Anthony Alito Jr.: Undegrad: Princeton. Law school: Yale.

That's pretty much an elite list of schools.

We have deluded ourselves into thinking the person elected to the White House is really and truly like the rest of us.

All three candidates don't know what it's like to face the daunting health care challenges millions of Americans are confronted with daily. Each is a member of the U.S. Senate, and they have the best health care money can buy for life; we pay for it! While your pension plan is shot to hell, their plan NEVER will be under-funded. The members will see to that, courtesy of taxpayer dollars.

Forget how many times Obama bowls gutter balls, Clinton tosses back shots of whiskey, and McCain talks about how he's a regular guy. Each, courtesy of their $150,000-plus annual salaries, makes far more than the average American.

And when it comes to wealth, Clinton gets to enjoy the $100 million she and her husband raked in since they left the White House. (Even their hefty book advances dwarf regular authors.)

McCain's wife, Cindy, runs one of Anheuser-Busch's largest beer distributors and is worth more than $100 million. They never will be living paycheck to paycheck.

Obama is the poorest of the three, but he did earn more than a million bucks courtesy of his best-selling books, "The Audacity of Hope" and "Dreams from My Father," after delivering the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. How many average Americans wouldn't mind having a million dollars in their savings accounts?

Bottom line: The narrative about our presidential candidates being just regular folks is a tired myth that gets repeated every day. And their efforts to show that they are "just like us" are really pathetic.

You don't have to go duck hunting, be seen buying milk at the grocery for your family, or having a beer at the local bar to show that you're "one of us." Just do what rich and highly educated folks do when they are in politics: Advance policies that at least will allow me to keep a few more dollars in my pocket so I'm able to afford a home.

One more thing: Don't buy fully into the nonsense tossed out by some of the loudest voices on television, radio and in print, who decry these "elitists" and trumpet that they are for the blue-collar, middle-class workers in Middle America.

Many of them pull down multimillion-dollar salaries and run into these same candidates on Martha's Vineyard and in the Hamptons when they all vacation. They, too, will pull every favor they have to get their children in the posh private schools and Ivy League institutions.

Yes, we even have elitists in the media.

Who would've thunk it?

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN contributor and the author of "Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith." Please visit his Web site at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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