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On a scholarship and living with his grandparents in a 2 bedroom apartment. Is Punahou ritzier than Andover? How many posters here personally know someone who went to Punahou? (I happen to know two, both of Chinese heritage. I don't think they, any more than Obama, fit in with the white establishment of Hawaii.)
In my opinion, "Dreams from My Father" is well written. Did it all himself too, I believe.
Who was a president who was working class?
The point is not a candidate's origin, sex, race, etc etc etc.
The point for voters is which candidate they judge can connect with the issues that they perceive as important to them. (And it's not about chummy chummy beer drinking. Some people voted for Bush because they imagined he'd be more fun to have a beer with than Al Gore or John Kerry. How well has that turned out? Anybody get to have a beer with him? And how many would seriously vote for the friends they bowl with, barbecue with, drink with?) We don't want to be buddies with our president. We want a good leader who can get together a competent team to join her/him in the Cabinet. We want honesty and serious consultation with the people, also known as the Congress. One of the big failings of the Bush administration has been a refusal to deal with Congress coupled with an intolerance of dissent from advisors. Read Jack Goldsmith's "The Terror Presidency." Goldsmith is a lawyer who worked in the Defense Dept and then in the Office of Legal Counsel under Ashcroft. He is a self-described conservative and so his scathing description of the executive branch under Bush is all the more telling for not being partisan.
If Obama is smart he will be learning from the people of Pennsylvania as much as they learn from him.
