We get it, Sarah Palin. You like to eat the moose you wrestled with your bare hands. You have a lifetime NRA membership that won't expire until the Second Amendment is nullified. You have been an active mayor of Wasilla, the capital of small town America, and you served as a governor for a state with population of metro Nashville. You refuse to be politically correct about evolution or global warming. You have children, nephews and neighbors, and even maybe distant friends who will enlist in the military. (USA! USA! USA!)
Without a doubt, she is a good ole' bluish-collar, working-class, American patriot and she should be proud of her humble, small-town narrative. However, there is no need to accuse Barack Obama of elitism in order to appear as the more gun-loving, God-loving candidate. Yet, ever since his "religions and guns" faux pas, Palin and the rest of the Republican spin machine have been tirelessly polishing Obama's image as the disengaged, anti-American socialite.

Calling Obama an elitist is like calling George W. Bush your ordinary, average-Joe from Texas. Both could not be farther from the truth. Most know about Obama's underprivileged upbringing, how his struggling family had to resort to food stamps to endure rising food costs, how his single mother would tutor him at four in the morning so he could compete with more privileged students, how he, against all statistical probability, received a merit scholarship to attend a top-notch private school. After graduating from Columbia, he placed country above himself by working as a community organizer in the Chicago's South Side to fix an impoverished neighborhood for an annual salary of $13,000. Unlike what Palin recently claimed about how community service has no true responsibilities, Obama had to make sure the government provided low-income residents with asbestos-free public housing. He also worked to unionize a group of workers whose careers have been lost after local steel plants were closed. He was involved in the day-to-day tasks of organizing demonstrations and rallies, holding conferences in local churches and schools, recruiting more workers and volunteers, planning for future initiatives and existing projects, etc. If those are not real responsibilities, then I want to know what they are.

Yes, in Obama's narrative, you don't hear stories of Vietnam War camps or the Alaskan wilderness, but those of Indonesia and Hawaii. You hear about his ascent through hard work and personality, his search for self-identity and belonging in a changing world, his experience working for those in the South Side, and his sick mother with inadequate healthcare. It is true he attended Harvard Law School, that he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago and that celebrities as well as Europeans love him for his new vision for America. But, why should we frown upon that and call him elitist for having those admirable assets and experiences? We want a president who is highly educated, who truly understands our Constitution and who can build a working coalition at home and abroad. But in these difficult times, we also need a president who has struggled with student loans and healthcare. We need someone who fought in the frontlines for the jobless and homeless. We need a leader who values faith of inclusion and peace, and who loves his family at home and the larger family that is America. We need Obama. We need Barry.