There's a bit of a tradition in the Kalmbacher family: When a baby's born, somebody makes a quilt. That becomes the baby's birth quilt. I still have mine. Made by my paternal grandmother out of good old Irish dedication, duty and tenacity, it's been through a lot over the years: More than a dozen moves, the occasional camping trip, the dirty, clutching fingers of my three younger brothers and an attack by a stupid poodle that my mom used to have who was misnamed "Sugar." Worn and torn, it's about as old as I am and smells even older. But it still has a vibrant hodgepodge of colors and designs. I eagerly await the day I can give it to my own child - I love my birth quilt.
Meanwhile, in Alabama last Monday, John McCain bought three quilts at around $2,500 apiece, The New York Times reported.
That's a lot of money to spend on quilts, even though McCain can afford it. I love quilts, but I do have a problem with selective snobbery and outrage over what are, honestly, non-issues.
As for the average American? Our quilts cost about $40 at Wal-Mart (or $60 at Target if we're feeling reckless).
Remember when John Edwards' $400 haircut proved that he was out of touch? Or when John Kerry was characterized as liking to windsurf, think about things and learn French and that was proof that he was out of touch?
Lately, Hillary Clinton has been called out of touch for taking a shot of my favorite whiskey, Crown Royal. I prefer the term "classy."
Barack Obama turned down coffee for orange juice, and Chris Matthews' head almost exploded at how "out of touch" he was for drinking juice in Pennsylvania. And when Obama uttered truths about the genuine bitterness of working-class Americans, the media elite in New York and D.C. acted like he had just performed a Capcom combo on a nun while castrating a puppy with an American flag lapel pin.
Hardscrabble, small town paragons (and New York Times editorial columnists) Maureen Dowd and David Brooks wrote absolutely scathing columns, arguing that Obama's comments displayed a disgusting air of elitism that made him out of touch with small-town America - as if Dowd or Brooks have been more than three miles from chain retailers of overpriced lattes in decades.
Painting Obama as the most out-of-touch candidate since Dukakis mistook an Abrams tank for a go-kart is a fabricated firestorm that has actually resonated with Americans when it was supposed to be an upsetting death knell. And secretly taping Obama's "guns, God and gays" argument at a closed-door fundraiser in scary and super-gay San Francisco and then posting it on the Huffington Post was supposed to blow the wheels off Obama's presidential campaign. But all the very important pundits were wrong. Again.
The Republican Party and their right-wing noise machine love the opportunity to brand Democrats as effete, out-of-touch elitists who havebizarre upper-crust habits that somehow translate into not being able to work for the average American. And the media just erupts into fits of ecstasy and faux-outrage when given the chance to play along.
Since I'm a media person, I probably shouldn't mention that McCain is married to a vapid trophy wife who happens to be a millionaire a hundred times over because she inherited it from her daddy.
I also won't go into the fact that McCain owns eight palatial homes - one of which has been featured on Home and Garden TV.
I won't mention the fact that the entirety of McCain's campaign is financed by lobbyists, PACs and corporate interests, with small-donor fundraising basically non-existent.
I won't elaborate on the fact that McCain thinks Americans are better off economically now than they were before George W. Bush took office.
I'll do none of these things to illustrate how out-of-touch John McCain is with the average, struggling-to-make-ends-meet, saddled-with-debt, can-barely-afford-health insurance American.
Can you imagine the media's reaction if Obama had spent $10,000 on quilts?
Kalmbacher is a journalism senior.
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