Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow (of "The sun glistened off his chiseled pectorals" [1] fame) is back on the Obama beat and on the front page Wednesday, with a story headlined "A middle-class president's paradox." [2]Some think Obama's an elitist.
But do they have fact-checkers at the Post? Saslow wrote:
His first year in office was defined in part by a paradox. He is a rare president who comes from the middle class, yet people still perceive him as disconnected from it.
Does Saslow think Bill Clinton came from money? Reagan? Carter? Ford? Nixon? LBJ?
Obama supporters like Saslow seem to want it both ways: championing Obama's exotic upbringing in Hawaii and Indonesia, and then feeling it's unfair that he's seen as exotic instead of Joe Lunchpail.
Saslow was underlining the "paradox" that Obama the "middle class" guy is seen as aloof:
As he arrived in Nashua, nearly two-thirds of Americans believed that his economic policies had hurt the country or made no difference at all; almost half thought he did not understand their problems.
Does Obama have to be seen as "middle class" for people to believe his economic policies are helping?
(Earlier BiasAlert from January 25: "Washington Post Connects Obama to Einstein: 'In Decision-Making, a Diversity of Inspiration [3]'")