Jeffrey T. Kuhner

President Obama claims he comes from humble origins. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Michelle wasn’t, either,” he recently said at a campaign rally in Ohio.

Mr. Obama’s obvious target was Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The president hopes to contrast his supposed average background with the former Massachusetts governor’s vast wealth. The political strategy is to portray Mr. Romney as an out-of-touch scion who does not understand the problems of ordinary Americans. According to Democrats, he is too wealthy, too successful and too elitist to be able to relate to working- and middle-class citizens. In short, Mr. Obama is resorting to envy and crass class warfare in order to smear Mr. Romney.

From our inception, America has had wealthy presidents. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush — all of them were rich before coming to power. What matters is not personal largess, but character, experience and ideological worldview. Mr. Romney has earned his success legally and honorably; he embodies the American dream of hard work, personal responsibility and capitalism. He has nothing to apologize for.

Yet, what about Mr. Obama? Are his autobiographical claims true? Is he the product of poverty or a low-income environment? No. In fact, he is also the progeny of privilege — and for him to claim otherwise is false.

Mr. Obama was raised by his white grandparents in a middle-class home in Hawaii. He did not come from the streets or the inner city; rather, he lived in comfort and material well-being. Every avenue was opened for him. Moreover, he attended the finest schools — Harvard, Columbia — based not on merit, but affirmative action. He admitted as much in an interview after being made president of the Harvard Law Review. It also explains why his college records remain sealed. They will show what everyone knows: He was a mediocre student who benefitted from racial quotas. In short, he was spoon-fed throughout much of his life.

Moreover, Mr. Obama is a multimillionaire. He is not some working stiff, struggling to pay the bills. Instead, he and his wife, Michelle, have amassed a small fortune. According to his tax returns, Mr. Obama earned nearly $16 million from 2006 until 2011 — mostly from sales of his books. He is not part of the so-called 99 percent, but the elite 1 percent. There is, however, one major difference between Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama. Mr. Romney earned his money through a long, productive career in the private sector. Mr. Obama has done what most Washington politicians do: leverage their public office to attain vast personal wealth. His entire career — as a community organizer, Illinois state senator, U.S. senator and, finally, president — has consisted of living off the government teat. He is part of the liberal ruling class, a socialist aristocracy that exploits hard-working Americans.

Mr. Obama is a typical academic leftist. Spoiled, selfish, self-righteous and self-congratulatory, he comes from a privileged background of ease and comfort. He lives in a bubble, surrounded by fellow elitist progressives. He is dangerously detached from reality. Like many liberals, he is driven by one powerful emotion: guilt. He is burdened by the unfairness, the injustice, the inequity of having a lifestyle and upbringing most people could only dream of. This is why he is obsessed with economic “fairness,” redistribution of wealth, soaking the rich with higher taxes and expanding entitlement programs. It is not rational economics, but a form of quasi-religious salvation: The use of big-government liberalism to eradicate social injustices. Utopian socialism seeks to expiate liberal guilt. It is the politics of personal pathology; it is immune to logic, facts or evidence.

Mr. Romney’s candidacy is an attempt to restore economic sanity. He wants to reduce taxes, slash regulations, repeal Obamacare, cut spending and unleash the private economy. He understands that capitalism has lifted countless millions out of poverty, creating economic prosperity and an unprecedented standard of living. He will return America to pre-Obama normalcy.

Many conservatives argue that Mr. Romney represents the Republican establishment. They believe he is another Bob Dole or John McCain. Hence, why bother supporting him? The answer is obvious: At least he does not hate his own country. Mr. Obama has compiled trillions in debt, supports amnesty for illegal immigrants and is dismantling our military. Another term and he will complete America’s destruction.

This is what privileged radicals — from Mr. Obama’s father and professor Derrick Bell to Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn — have wanted for decades. Mr. Obama no longer wields a silver spoon, but a silver bullet. And he is aiming straight for America’s heart.

Jeffrey T. Kuhner is a columnist at The Washington Times and president of the Edmund Burke Institute.

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