But in fact Obama is vulnerable to the elitist charge. He's a graduate of Harvard Law and that very much puts him in an elite. His mother was an affluent hippie sort who tripped around the world. Somebody or something paid for it.

Furthermore, he doesn't seem particularly sympathetic or in tune with people who aren't like him, urbane upper class college graduates. Unfortunately a lot of those people are supposed to be Democratic voters.

The second paragraph's potentially right--whether he is or isn't, he is not perceived as empathetic with much of his working class base. Query why that has taken hold more than with the other candidates.

The first paragraph, though, is an example of why people start to think racism. His single mother was an anthropologist who did field work and was far from affluent, even if she doesn't fit the conventional American mold. They certainly had far less than the Rodhams or McCains. If Obama had money, he wouldn't have had student loans when trying to buy a house.

Whatever. The real point is that yes, Obama went to Harvard. So did his wife. But the three principals in the election since March are (a) Obama, (b) a woman who has made more than $100 million in the past 8 years, went to Wellesley and Yale, and is married to a man who went to Georgetown, Oxford, and Yale, and (c) a wealthy man who is the son of an admiral, the grandson of an admiral, and married to a woman with a vast fortune.

All of these people are "elite" by most definitions, though I'd argue that Obama's well behind the other two. So why does Obama get called the "elitist" in this group? Is it that hard to understand that people begin to suspect that those using the "elitist" tag have some problem with a person of color who is smart and successful?

That's not to say that everyone who thinks Obama an elitist is really just a racist. But surely it's not hard to see why the antennae go up.