# Obama Too Elite Claims Wife of Sir Evelyn de Rothschild **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 17, 2008, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982 "2008-09-17T14:38:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/61 "2008-09-17T20:22:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > They do have a tendency to do that, but the Palin-style “I’m just like you, gosh darn it” is also talking down to people, and it’s at least equally phony. > > Since the author is endorsing McCain, I can’t help but think her advice is more of a backhanded way of publishing one more version of the GOP take on Obama, and not actual advice. Agreed on the Palin part. Personally, I think that this VP selection made for great political tactics but betrayed a lack of true statesmanship, which may well prove crippling. The only question is whether it will prove crippling before the election, or (worst case) _after_. The secret to politics I think is easy to articulate but hard to achieve - it is to position your candidate so that the attacks on him or her merely make them stronger, vote-wise. Conversely, one’s opponent should be so placed that speaking to his or her strengths weaken them with the public. The extreme form is “swiftboating”, but that implies dishonesty - these tactics can be achieved without overt lying. Take Palin vs. Obama (and it is odd to even think of _them_ as the opposites, but that is how the election is shaping). Palin has endured many in some cases quite justified attacks on her competence, knowledge, ethics, family choices and morality; all of which to an extent feed into her “I’m just like you, gosh darn it” pose. Her true weakness - the fact that her policies, to the extent that they are known, are such as to only appeal to a minority of the truly right wing “base” - get lost in a mass of irrelevance. The attacks, even though they are in many cases justified, seem to strengthen her, not weaken her. Compare her presence in the election to poor Biden - one may say, “Biden who”? Similarly, Obama’s strengths are his personal qualities, charisma, intelligence. Portraying these as “elitism” is, as a tactic, a way of taking them head-on - turning a strength into a source of weakness. Or at least such is the Republican narrative. The difficulty for the Democrats is that, from what I’ve seen so far, they don’t seem to have a really good handle on how to counter that narrative. Going on about how dumb the majority of the public is a la Stevenson (or worse yet, jealous and vengeful) merely strengthens it. I would guess you are 100% correct about the author’s motives for writing the article. That does not mean, however, that she does not make good points nonetheless. If the Democrats lose this election, it will I think be because they failed to solve the problem I have outlined. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/62 "2008-09-17T21:12:47Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > This woman backed Hilary. Now she is backing Palin … because of the love taco factor, as it were. I think she’s just voting the feminist angle, no matter how anti-feminist the feminine in question is. Nah. She raised 100K+ for the Hillary campaign. If Obama wins, that investment is lost. If McCain wins, Hillary’s wing in the Democratic Party stands to rise in influence - and Hillary could conceivably try again in 2012. Poor woman. She paid _good money_ for a ticket to the inner circle and now some uppity Obama-come-lately has turned her Golden Ticket into so much toilet paper. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/63 "2008-09-17T21:31:21Z")
If Obama does lose, I think the elite thing is only part of the problem. Beyond the question of whether or not he’s a snob is the fact that he’s got a big message, which not every candidate offers, and the fact that he has been the target of constant media attention. Regardless of the quality of his message and the coverage itself, that’s going to turn off some voters, and McCain’s campaign has done a good job of reaching out to them with that whole “One” thing and the “Celebrity” thing. Obama’s got some options to deal with the snob issues, and I think the renewed focus on the economy will help him. The buzz on Palin is also finally calming down, and I think the public response is gettign less positive, which will also help him. It’s never as simple as ‘the Democrats could lose because they couldn’t rebut charges that their guy is a snob.’ If they’d run someone who was the opposite, they’d be dealing just as much trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/64 "2008-09-17T21:51:07Z")
> [@Spiny\_Norman](#): > > Poor woman. She paid **good money** for a ticket to the inner circle and now some uppity Obama-come-lately has turned her Golden Ticket into so much toilet paper. LMAO! No wonder I love you so much! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2008, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/65 "2008-09-17T22:01:43Z")
> [@PhiloVance](#): > > Does anyone in this thread realize she is a member of the DNC. This is a big defection. :smack: She was also a member of the platform committee. [QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] She’s not defecting. She’s just not supporting Obama. [/QUOTE] Well, she’s also actively endorsing McCain/Palin. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/66 "2008-09-18T00:18:12Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > If Obama does lose, I think the elite thing is only part of the problem. Beyond the question of whether or not he’s a snob is the fact that he’s got a big message, which not every candidate offers, and the fact that he has been the target of constant media attention. Regardless of the quality of his message and the coverage itself, that’s going to turn off some voters, and McCain’s campaign has done a good job of reaching out to them with that whole “One” thing and the “Celebrity” thing. Obama’s got some options to deal with the snob issues, and I think the renewed focus on the economy will help him. The buzz on Palin is also finally calming down, and I think the public response is gettign less positive, which will also help him. > > It’s never as simple as ‘the Democrats could lose because they couldn’t rebut charges that their guy is a snob.’ If they’d run someone who was the opposite, they’d be dealing just as much trouble. No question, the renewed focus on the economy has to help Obama. And no doubt as you say a Democratic loss, should one occur, will be attributable to many factors. Also, as the buzz over Palin dies down, and debates happen, her actual positions will become clearer - which can’t help her cause. My sole point was that the author of this piece - prejudiced and spiteful though she may be - makes a worthy point (albeit by no means an original one!). ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/67 "2008-09-18T00:19:47Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Sir Evelyn de Rothschild is a mere knight. Parvenu. We could pit his wife against Lady Haden-Guest in a knock down, drag out, Jello wrestling death match, but as HER husband is a Baron it would be unseemly for her to be pulling the panties off someone beneath her. You funny. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/68 "2008-09-18T00:35:02Z")
Lady Haden-Guest can [hold her own in a fight](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6scYj8v8bjQ&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/69 "2008-09-18T00:43:30Z")
The Lady de Rothschild is on CNN right now to defend her statements. She simply won’t answer the questions directly. Asked why Obama was an elitist, the best she can do in answering the question is “You know it when you see it.” Translation: “He’s an uppity nigger.” ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/70 "2008-09-18T00:48:04Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The Lady de Rothschild is on CNN right now to defend her statements. > > She simply won’t answer the questions directly. Asked why Obama was an elitist, the best she can do in answering the question is “You know it when you see it.” > > Translation: “He’s an uppity nigger.” I just got done watching it. She is totally hypocritical and disgusting. Amazing! What a phoney. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/71 "2008-09-18T02:31:29Z")
So, what language do the elite speak? I bet it’s poetic and lyrical. ---
**Author:** ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/72 "2008-09-18T02:37:27Z")
Man, if Obama cannot hold on to the British baroness vote, all hope is lost! ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/73 "2008-09-18T06:13:25Z")
Anyone have a link to any kind of full statement from The Baroness? I’ll begrudgingly respect her decision to support McCain if she at least attempts to explain her reasoning sensibly. I’m not getting the feeling that I’ll be pleasantly surprised at her thoughtfulness so far. From the quotes I’ve read I get the impression she’s pretty much saying “Obama bad, McCain good,” and not much else. Here’s how to defect properly, from Wick Allison, the owner of D Magazine (and former editor of _National Review_): > [@](#): > > Liberalism always seemed to me to be a system of “oughts.” We ought to do this or that because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of whether it works or not. It is a doctrine based on intentions, not results, on feeling good rather than doing good. > > But today it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political programs when they clearly don’t work. The Bush tax cuts—a solution for which there was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the nation went to war—led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth in the federal debt. Facing this, John McCain pumps his “conservative” credentials by proposing even bigger tax cuts. Meanwhile, a movement that once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth of government in our history. That is not conservatism; it is profligacy using conservatism as a mask. > > Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming bellicosity about making the world “safe for democracy.” It is John McCain who says America’s job is to “defeat evil,” a theological expansion of the nation’s mission that would make George Washington cough out his wooden teeth. > > This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse. > > Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers. [http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Core+Pages&type=gen&mod=Core+Pages&tier=3&gid=B33A5C6E2CF04C9596A3EF81822D9F8E](http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Core+Pages&type=gen&mod=Core+Pages&tier=3&gid=B33A5C6E2CF04C9596A3EF81822D9F8E) Now that’s a well written defection. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/74 "2008-09-18T13:22:48Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Sir Evelyn de Rothschild is a mere knight. Parvenu. We could pit his wife against Lady Haden-Guest in a knock down, drag out, Jello wrestling death match, but as HER husband is a Baron it would be unseemly for her to be pulling the panties off someone beneath her. Jamie Lee Curtis, covered in Jello , pulling another woman’s panties off? Well, I’m not getting any work done today… ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/75 "2008-09-18T13:29:53Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#): > > Well, she’s also actively endorsing McCain/Palin. I didn’t see that part. I’m not prepared to smite her; she is, after all, stating an opinion widely held among the _imbecilerati_ (yes, I just created that word, and isn’t it fabulous?) and the nobility have the same right to be stupid that the rest of us do. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982/76 "2008-09-18T15:59:57Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Well, I’m not getting any work done today… Or standing for a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-too-elite-claims-wife-of-sir-evelyn-de-rothschild/463982.md?page=3)