I woke up this morning and thought, "What an utter waste of time!" The whole thing consisted of "gotcha" questions meant to chum the waters for the dumb-asses who need something to crow about. This debate was another race to the bottom. It may as well have been moderated by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. The lady asking Obama about the flag lapel pin made me sick. Truly, truly pathetic. My God in heaven, am I supposed to really believe that THIS is what the country cares about? Whether a candidate for President wears a flag on his lapel to show his patriotism? Whether Jeffrey Wright loves America as much as Obama does?

WHAT THE HELL KIND OF BULLSHIT QUESTIONS ARE THESE??

This is elitist: asking absolutely irrelevant and idiotic questions and turning a presidential debate into a tabloid freak show, and then calling it "intelligent, spirited discussions of the issues." Why don't we ask if they know what color underwear Paris Hilton is wearing today?

I did sense a rising annoyance with the whole thing from Sen. Obama. I'm sure he'll catch some heat for it. After all, he should expect this. Wait'll the real idiots get hold of him, right? Because we wouldn't want anyone thinking he was showing the frustration of a truly intelligent person who doesn't suffer fools gladly. Oh no, we can't have that.

Elitist is complaining about how you had to heat your second home on the lake this winter while never spending any time in it because you're too busy running your little fiefdom, raising prices on your products, and not paying your help any more money so they can heat the one home they're struggling to hold on to.

Elitist is a corporation whose balance sheet is not quite as fat this quarter as it was last belly-aching about their "profit picture" and their "need to contain cost" by reducing head count instead of actually figuring out how to make money and calling it all "sound business practice." Meanwhile the CEO is touring a bigger mansion with his real estate agent.

Elitist is an administration drunk on its own notion of power with not a discernible trace of integrity, leave alone competence, relieving itself over everything this nation is supposed to stand for and then, as its crowning act, picking a successor who has as much if not more contempt for ordinary people to take us further into decline while patting itself on the back for its "legacy of accomplishment."

Elitist is praising stupidity, extolling lack of character, and reveling in your utter lack of imagination and then looking at the rest of us like we're crazy. Elitist is this race to the bottom and holding up DUMB-ASSEDNESS as something to aspire to.

And no, dumb-assedness is not a word. Just like "ginormous" is not a word. I just made it up.

I've read a few of the reactions here.

And I read Joan's post. This is another tempest in a teacup initiated by what appears to be a very desperate and increasingly "out of touch" Clinton campaign. Now I'm sure a lot of us can attest to having had "working class roots." But Joan, and I'm sure many others here have done a bit with what we have to become more than what we were growing up. So I am not following the faux "offense" at what Barack has said, which again, happens to be the truth. I'm not sure whether he connected the dots as well as some other times but the essential point is correct. Decent, hardworking people who basically don't feel that their government and what it does has any correlation to their actual lives. So why bother voting? Why bother doing anything that allows this non-responsive, self-involved entity into their lives any more than it already is? I get it. I worked alongside people like this a decade ago in an Ethan Allen factory that has since shut down. There were folks who'd worked there all their lives and raised families, sent kids to college (no, not Harvard; more like UMass or another state school)and were proud that they could. But now the factory is closed and the jobs are gone and the community suffers. This has been the trend since Reagan. And it ain't just in PA, or KS or IL. This is in MA, CT, RI, and NY. All the so-called "blue" liberal states up here in the Northeast.

Here's the question we should be asking, in my view.

What happened to the America that made things? What happened to the country that innovated and created the finest stuff in the world and sold it to the rest of the world? Where did we get the idea that only CEOs and management types have marketable skills that should be rewarded with high salaries and perks?

Why is it that they get to send their kids to Harvard, Princeton or Yale, yet people whose job title isn't GM, or VP or COO, or CFO have a hard time getting their kids into a UMass or a Penn State, or a U of KS?

When did this become normal? Of course people are bitter! The only ones who seem "elitist" or "out of touch" are Clinton, who's sounding more like the Right Wing Noise Machine, and McCain, who's sold his soul to that devil and gladly worships at that altar. I expect this kind of twisted conclusion from him. But Hillary Clinton joining in on this is just further proof that she's lost perspective. This all smacks of tortured logic and cynical posturing and it's pathetic. The reality and the irony here is that it's not just the "working class" that are fed up. It's the white collar "professional class", and people in retail and service sectors, too. Our economy has not spread the wealth nor the opportunity it should have particularly in the last 7 years under Bush 2. Barack Obama speaks the truth and gets this assault from mediocre minds. Unbelievable.