They Call Him Mr. Tibbs

I think I may have finally figured out Barack Obama's greatest challenge in winning this election. With his background and biography, I have been amazed that the pundits continue to describe him as an "elite". Other than the obvious suspicion of a black candidate by mostly white voters, I have been confounded by the constant dialogue that he "can't connect with the working man". After all, here is a man who comes from a working class family (a single mom struggling to make ends meet and ultimately surviving on her own, a grandfather who was a World War II veteran and a not so successful furniture and insurance salesman, and a grandmother who worked her way up through the ranks as a bank employee during her entire adult life). Although I have never heard him talk about it or seen anything about it in his two books, Barack must have been a gifted student. He did succeed remarkably well in some of the very best schools and universities this country has to offer. Yet, when he graduated from Columbia, he headed straight to the streets of Chicago working to better the lives of guess who -- working men and women and lots who wanted to be working but weren't. After finishing law school at Harvard, he headed straight back to those same streets. And that is where he stayed until this miraculous political career began and exploded onto the national scene in 2004.

So, what is the problem? Where does this elite charge come from? Why do the pundits and political analysts all decry that Barack cannot show that he is "one of us" and why does the chorus uniformly and obediently nod their heads in agreement?

The problem is not that Barack is an elite. The problem is that he is just so damn intelligent and, therefore, threatening. He is perceived by many to be right out of In the Heat of the Night. Many apparently see him as the Sidney Poitier character transplanted from Philadelphia to Rod Steiger's beat in the deep South. Who can't remember those unforgettable confrontation scenes when Steiger nastily made fun of Poitier for using the word "whom" and accused him of being a "northern boy" or when he snarled, "What do they call you up there in Philadelphia, Virgil?" only to have Poitier bristle as his eyes glared and he snapped and fired back, "They call me MISTER TIBBS." Who didn't jump when Virgil was indignantly slapped by the town patriarch and slapped him right back as Chief Gillespie looked on with disbelief? If I am not mistaken, Steiger's character had a second fleeting expression which appeared to be cheering Tibbs on for taking on "the man" in a way that he could not or had not been able to do himself.

No, Barack's problem is not that he is an elite. Rather, his real problem is described by two truly awful words which are much worse. Calling him an "elite" is really just code for what has too often in the past been referred to as an "uppity Negro".

Barack's challenge, then, is to convince those older, less educated, working class white voters (who used to be referred to as Reagan Democrats and who now may become known as Hillary Democrats) that he is not Mr. Tibbs -- or maybe only that part of him that is willing to take on the man for or with them. Rather, he is exactly what they should want their President to be -- smart, intelligent, articulate, thoughtful, and intellectually curious (and hard working and not afraid to get his hands dirty, by the way). God knows they ought to be more appreciative of those traits (even if they are a little elite and come with a little white wine and arugula) than the ability to make a three-pin spare or to chug a beer while screwing up the world. After all, that arugula? Just another kind of cabbage. Just happens to go better in a salad with salmon than in a cole slaw with barbecue.