There is this cutesy little web encounter by four prominent media women lamenting the fact that the Obamas are being unfairly labeled as “elitists”. To be fair, many candidates attempt to label each other “out of touch” with their potential constituents. Some are born with the ol’ silver spoons in their mouths; some are nouveau riche, and some cash-in during and after their terms of office

But it would appear the ladies, Joan Juliet Buck (Vogue), Lesley Stahl (CBS), Liz Smith (NY Post) and Whoopi Goldberg (The View), don’t think the elitist criticism is fair when applied to Barack and Michelle Obama.

JOAN: What is this thing of Obama being perceived as an elitist? Is it important? Is it going to harm him? What do you think?

LIZ: I think it does harm him. And the National Review story on Michelle Obama complaining to ladies in Ohio about how could the two of them live on $500,000 a year, and how they couldn’t pay for their children’s tennis and dancing lessons, or piano lessons, or something. But, honestly, you have to admire the Obamas. They’re an upscale, young American couple. They’re a model for every downtrodden person in America. So, I think a little elitism goes a long way. But do I think the Obamas are intellectual elitists, probably. They’re smarter than the rest of us.

It’s a rather lengthy four-way, and you can check it out at your leisure. However, there was one exchange within that interview that prompted me to do some digging.

You see; one of the side effects of being an elitist seems to be the belief that you’re smarter than everyone else. That could be one reason (aside from the “evil” component) that politicians tell tall tales, believing that the consumers of those whoppers are too stupid (and in awe of them) to discern fact from fiction. Hillary Clinton obviously believed she could get away with her Bosnia delusion, while Barack Obama stated he never personally witnessed a negative Pastor Wright sermon.

When publicly presented with the facts, they both recanted.

In the conversation, Whoopi Goldberg appears to have committed a similar offense…

WHOOPI: No, but that’s the way it is with us. And I’ll tell you something, this thing that happened at that dopey John Kerry fundraiser …

JOAN: What thing?

WHOOPI: I was accused of doing something that I didn’t do on stage. And not one Democrat stood up and said, "I was there, that’s not what happened.” Nobody said …

LIZ: You were accused of making a nasty remark about George Bush. Is that right?

WHOOPI: I was accused of making disgusting, rude, ugly, crappy remarks about the president. And that’s not what happened. And before I got off the stage it was already on the AP wires. And there were people making ugly, crude, nasty remarks about the president that night. But I wasn’t one of them.

JOAN: But it stuck to you and nobody stood up for you?

WHOOPI: None of them. None of them stood up and said, "Wait a minute. That’s not what happened! This is not what went down.”

Apparently, a lot of people got it wrong then, Whoopi.

If we were all fed a load of hooey, how come she didn’t sue the Associated Press, as well as all the other media outlets that repeated the “slander”? Celebrities sue the National Inquirer all the time when misquoted.

According to Reuters, “The New York Post said of Goldberg's appearance at the event: ‘Waving a bottle of wine, she fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia.’"

Bad-Taste Digs at W During Dem Gala Cost Big Fat Gig
Whoopi Goldberg was… canned (yesterday) by the makers of SlimFast over her X-rated barbs about the President. Goldberg stoked outrage last week with an extended filthy rant (involving jokes based on the sexual connotations of President Bush’s last name and Vice President Cheney’s first name), which delighted the partisan crowd that packed a… Democratic fund-raiser….
– N.Y. Daily News, July 15, 2004

If her comments never happened, she could have sued the hell out of SlimFast…

Ads featuring Ms. Goldberg will no longer be on the air.
– Terry Olson, Slim-Fast General Manager

So who are we to believe? The many Hollywood celebrities who reportedly laughed their butts off at her comments at that infamous fundraiser?

Kerry could be seen laughing uproariously during part of Goldberg's tirade — and neither he nor Edwards voiced a single objection to its tone when they spoke to the crowd.
– Fox News , July 10, 2004

The problem with elites is their egos. As they believe they know more than the rest of us, they believe they can tell us whatever they wish, as it’s usually for our own good (and their personal self-aggrandizement). The problem is, for all they believe they know, there are some of us out here who will take the time and do the research, and blow their little lapses in judgment out of the water.

Just ask Dan Rather.

Elitism isn’t the problem. The elitist allergy to the truth is, right Whoopi?

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