Does Not Having A Blue Blooded Pedigree Help Or Hurt Obama?

[Median Democrat]

You look at our past presidents and most of them have come from privileged or elite backgrounds. There are exceptions such as Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan or Jimmy Carter. Conversely, you have the Bushes, John Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Does one need such a background to deal with the elites that inhabit the halls of power? Or, does such an elite background render one politically tone deaf? Or, is it impossible to generalize?

[ikojo]

1. Obama received an elite education in Hawaii

as well as at Columbia and Harvard. He knows how to talk to "those people" and he knows which fork to use.

[kennetha]

2. Obama may not have been borne into great (or any) wealth

But he's had elite education from the beginning. I don't think people realize how elite of a school Punaho -- where he went to school in Hawaii -- is. Think a pacific version of Exeter or something. Plus I gather during his year's abroad, in Indonesia, he also attended schools for the elite.

[Median Democrat]

4. Going To Good School On Scholarship Does Not Make You A Member...

...Of the club, as a lot of folks who went to a good school with scholarships would tell you. I managed to go to a pretty decent school with a lot financial aid. I had to eat breakfast cereal for dinner to get by, and if anything, the experience does reinforce the notion that some folks grew up on a different side of the tracks than you. If anything, I think its an alienating experience when your peers are a lot more well off than you, even though you can hold your own in the classroom.

Case in point is sitting with a bunch of folks who are either paternalistically discussing a certain neighborhood that you happened to grow up in. Maybe other folks from middle class backgrounds who managed to go to an "elite" college or univerity had a different experience.

[avaistheone1]

5. That kind of education especially in the early years sets you on the fast track to compete with the

elites.

[Still Sensible]

3. I don't think its something you can generalize

We've had good and bad leaders from the elites and from the less than elites. I think personal characteristics are the real determinant. The greatest contrast between Bush and Obama is that the former was not intellectually curious or capable of identifying and examining the nuances of any given situation... something Obama seems to have covered in spades. I'll bet you will find that particular skillset of paramount importance if you evaluate leaders. Lincoln was a great example... not a blueblood by any means, but a first rate thinker.

[Beregond2]

6. In his case, it helps NOT having that kind of "pedigree."

If he were that smart and also a member of the aristocracy, people would not trust him. That he is "one of the people" who managed to rise to the top on his smarts is a big part of his appeal.

On the other hand, if "W" had not been a Bush, he would have been lucky to hold down a job in a pawnshop.