GOP mocks Obama’s elitist education

According to the right wing, Barack Obama’s a celebrity, an elitist, a secret Muslim, a racist Christian, a political newbie, a corrupt Chicago politician, and a terrorist appeaser. Unfortunately for them, none of those labels managed to stick, so they’re tacking yet another on to the list: private-educated elitist.

Sure, the Republicans have tried to paint Obama as an elitist for months now, but they’re just starting to focus on his education. According to Yahoo and Politico, the GOP sent out “Barack Obama’s Hawaii Travel Guide” to reporters over the weekend. I haven’t seen a copy yet and would appreciate anyone who has access to it speaking up, but according to the article it pokes fun at Barack’s having attended Punahou School, a private college prep school in Hawaii.

This attack is simply puzzling, considering that John McCain attended Episcopal High School, a private boarding school in Virginia. In a race where the multi-millionaire heiress-marrying career politician is trying to paint the single-parent-raised Chicago activist as an elitist, this is just one more layer of inexplicable rhetoric. Granted, Obama went to Harvard while McCain went to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, a school that McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds says “is as public as public gets.” This is, of course, bullshit. Yes, Annapolis is a “public” school, but it’s also an incredibly prestigious academy that’s educated and trained some of the country’s best and brightest. McCain, who graduated fifth from the bottom of his class, evidently wasn’t one of them.

I don’t get why the GOP is attacking Obama over this, when it’s spent years screaming about how public schools don’t work, that parents should have the “choice” (read: funding funneled into religious schools) to go to private schools, and that private schools are more effective. Is this really an issue they want to bring up?

Bounds denies that the email is meant as a political jab at Obama, saying, “No one means to demean the academic successes of Barack Obama or the schools he attended. The RNC and this campaign have sought to simply point out that on his Hawaii travels, there are certain landmarks reporters will likely see and this was a way to put those on the map.” How helpful. Just like when pundits bring up Obama’s time in Indonesia or the nationality and religion of his father. They’re not saying he’s a Muslim, they’re just providing valuable historical context. Or just like when right-wingers bring up Obama’s extremely thin connections to Tony Rezko and William Ayers. They’re not saying he’s corrupt or a terrorist sympathizer, they’re just offering insight into Chicago’s rich political culture.

The worst part about this is that if Obama tried to get into McCain’s class at Episcopal High School, he wouldn’t have been allowed in. Not because of a lack of money or prestige, but because he would have been a slave back then.