I'm Shocked! Shocked I Tell You!

Theda Skocpol, an American sociologist and political scientist at Harvard University, makes the following observation in a post at the TalkingPointsMemo site about the behaviour of Hillary Clinton and her latest attack on Barak Obama as an "elitist". Hillary Clinton has opted for a strategy of pursuing an increasingly bloody dogfight for the Democratic nomination. Skocpol says:

I have been in meetings with the Clintons and their advisors where very clinical things were said in a very-detached tone about unwillingness of working class voters to trust government -- and Bill Clinton -- and about their unfortunate (from a Clinton perspective) proclivity to vote on life-style rather than economic issues. To see Hillary going absolutely over the top to smash Obama for making clearly more humanly sympathetic observations in this vein, is just amazing. Even more so to see her pretending to be a gun-toting non-elite. Give us a break! ...

This has to be one of the few times in U.S. political history when a multi-millionaire has accused a much less wealthy fellow public servant, a person of the same party and views who made much less lucrative career choices, of "elitism"!

I think it is funny that politicians love to talk about taking the "high road" but seem compelled to live by the ethics of the "low road". I was never taken by a second Clinton in office. One was enough. But worse that that, I don't understand the enthusiasm of the American people for creating political dynasties. I always enjoyed the wisdom of the Mexican Revolution which created the maxim "No Re-election". The Mexicans had a bitter experience of the corruption of an elite and their power-hungry ways. Why haven't the Americans learned this? Rhetorical question: Wouldn't it have been wonderful if Americans had learned this lesson in time for the 2004 election?