Lynn Forester de Rothschild Is Not an Elitist.

Lynn Forester de Rothschild – a prominent Hillary fundraiser and PUMA, apparently – has decided to throw her support to the Straight Talk Express:

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee’s Platform Committee, will endorse John McCain for president on Wednesday, her spokesman tells CNN.

The announcement will take place at a news conference on Capitol Hill, just blocks away from the DNC headquarters. Forester will “campaign and help him through the election,” the spokesman said of her plans to help the Republican presidential nominee.

Forester was a major donor for Clinton earning her the title as a Hillraiser for helping to raise at least $100,000 for the New York Democratic senator’s failed presidential bid.

In an interview with CNN this summer, Forester did not hide her distaste for eventual Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

“This is a hard decision for me personally because frankly I don’t like him,” she said of Obama in an interview with CNN’s Joe Johns. “I feel like he is an elitist. I feel like he has not given me reason to trust him.”

So, just to make sure we have this straight:

  • If you were born to a teenaged single mother, raised by your lower-middle class grandparents, attended high school and college on scholarship, worked your way to the presidency of the Harvard Law Review, and after graduating, opted to spend a few years as a community organizer in a poor Chicago neighborhood, then you’re an elitist and can’t relate to ordinary people.
  • On the other hand, if you were the favored son of a prominent military and political family, who married a wealthy heiress and parlayed that into a successful political career, then you are obviously relatable and “authentic.”
  •  And, if you belong to one of the oldest, wealthiest famlies in the world, then you are clearly in a good position to attack someone for “elitism.”

At this point “elitism” is a word completely devoid of any real meaning, except when applied to Barack Obama, in which case it is probably code for “I just can’t vote for an uppity n*gger.”

(h/t to Ta-Nehisi Coates) 

Jamelle

Jamelle Bouie is a writer for Slate. He has also written for The Daily Beast, The American Prospect and The Nation. His work centers on politics, race, and the intersection of the two.

You can find him on Twitter, Flickr, and Instagram as jbouie.

Latest posts by Jamelle (see all)

  • Big Word

    How can a decision to not support someone you don’t like be a difficult one? I’d much rather hear her say what she really feels. She’s obviously pissed that her chick didn’t get the nod.

  • The thing is, one can be rich and well-traveled without being elitist. Not that I’m saying this woman isn’t elitist, but it’s possible.

    Big Word is right: the one thing she is is a white woman who wanted HRC in office more than she wanted a Democrat. I think that’s a more effective argument.

    Because as much as the “Obama’s elitist” charge sounds like “uppity,” two things do come to mind. 1) Dems have often been labeled as “elitist” by the Republicans. 2) While Obama isn’t elitist, his background doesn’t mean he couldn’t be.

    The elitism argument has too many holes on both sides. I think it’s better to avoid it.

  • ladyfresshh

    Odd how she doesn’t realize this is more a comment on her than on Obama or even McCain

  • NR

    I don’t see how one could be rich and well-traveled without being elitist. How is this possible?

  • Grump

    As I think about it more, couldn’t Obama be the posterchild for conservative values given the life experiences he’s faced? All he would have to do is follow the party line and he’d be perfect for the GOP to trot around as a token!!!

  • Shawn L.

    From the American Heritage Dictionary:

    elitism

    1. The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.

    2. The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.

    Gee Lady Rothschild, look in the mirror.

  • quadmoniker

    Grump:
    That’s what I say, too! They should love him. He went to the country’s best colleges despite what are statistical long odds. But, you know, your values can change if you just don’t like a person.