You wrote a very well-thought out piece based on an entirely false premise - that somehow this one off-handed, poorly-phrased answer during an impromptu Q&A session at a non-public event is evidence of Obama's true core belief about the working class that he's somehow managed to hide during 15 months of intense campaigning.

You're practicing the same brand of amateur speculative psychology that you're denouncing in your article. You assume that this one sentence, chosen among millions uttered in the course of this campaign, is dispositive proof that Obama thinks he's better than the working class.

Because we're bored of and fatigued by the campaign and the neverending onslaught of over-analysis fueled by the 24/7 mixed mass media, everyone is looking for the death knell. The Big One that's gonna tip the scales. Our nerve is in tatters and our patience running at an all time low.

So what happens? This off-the-cuff comment made by Obama is being treated like the Zapruder film. Oceans of ink are being spilled parsing and dissecting and speculating and insinuating. Hillary and McCain are launching nuclear warheads at it. The politics of division and triangulation at work. Let's pit ourselves against each other instead of taking the comment as an opening to discuss what we have in common and where our differences lie before tackling some monumental problems. Great idea, guys. Keep it up and we'll be watching President McCain take the oath in January.

I'm special. I'm always right. It's someone else's fault. I didn't do it. My opinion is correct. There are no valid viewpoints other than my own. I will only vote for someone who's like me. Anyone who's not like me can't understand me. Don't insult me. Tell me what I want to hear. I distrust people smarter than me. I don't want to feel dumb. But I also don't want to read and learn and understand - I already know everything I need to know. The good book tells me. Foreigners are shady. USA is #1. Wooooo! The truth is what I want it to be, and anyone who disagrees is lying. I like people who are like me. I like people who agree with me. I don't like to be challenged. I never change my mind. You're either with me or against me. I have morals. My morals are the only valid morals. People should be forced to live their lives like I live mine - then America would be a better place.

Is there a politician out there who can pander to me? Great. I'll vote for them. It'll feel good knowing that they care about what I care about. And they surely do - they just said so!

God Bless America.

News is that Hillary is about to open a new fast food chain in working class towns across America called Pander Express. It will feature glorious looking pictures of sumptuous meals for affordable prices. However, the actual food that comes out will be hot garbage made in India and China. But it will be loaded with sugar and butter and people will think it's good. But it will actually only serve to deepen the depression felt in these towns by causing heart failure, diabetes, and other health problems.

Pander Express - coming to a small town near you in 2008!

We're the only industrialized country dumb enough to cast off a potentially transformative leader because he's too smart and speaks the truth.

We're the only industrialized country dumb enough to not realize how dumb we are and insist on leaders who are just as dumb as we are so we don't feel so dumb.

What a country!

Sorry. I didn't realize that Columbia PhDs were the norm in the factories of Altoona and Scranton. I've lived in rural, working class towns, and my experiences were very different from where you must live. Either way, the focus shouldn't be on whether the comment was "elitist" but whether it's true, and lots of people are saying that it is true, including people who were the subject of the remarks.

I'm not saying blue collar workers are bad people. I'm saying there's a reason they've latched on to these non-economic social issues while voting for their own economic exploitation, and that reason isn't Jesus Christ.

So where do these "deeply held beliefs" come from? What causes people to take up causes like opposing abortion and gay marriage and vote accordingly? What causes deep doctrinal religiosity that promotes bigotry and hatred? What makes someone deeply need to own a firearm? Where do you see it most? I'll give you a hint - it isn't in the Hamptons.

These "legitimate beliefs" are a product of their situation - economically depressed, undereducated, raped by U.S. corporations, and pandered-to for years by selfish, power-hungry politicians who exploit these fears and needs and situations for their own political gain. Hillary and McCain are cut from this cloth.

For instance, how is abortion still legal given the Republican stranglehold on legislation in the past 7 years? Didn't all of those republicans in office use abortion as a campaign promise? Did they forget about their pledge? And won't "values" be another issue come the Fall, when McCain supporters fawn all over his fake brand of patriotism and war-heroism while questioning Obama for not wearing a flag pin?

Nothing will change because nobody is addressing the real issues. The "legitimate beliefs" you think Obama belittles are actually illegitimate beliefs borne out of commonly-held misconceptions and exploitation. These people have been exploited by politicians and corporations for years, and have been led to believe the real enemy is someone else.

Obama wants to change that. If the people will let him.