Obama as the "Democratic Ideal"

A bit more on Ross Douthat's Times piece about how Palin, not Obama, demonstrates the triumph of the democratic ideal, because Obama is an Elite and Palin is a regular American.

Ta-Nehisi Coates on the Atlantic notes that there's a real racial bias to who gets to be a "regular American," and that if you pull that out, it's not clear that Palin is any more regular than Obama-

The use of the word neighbor is instructive--Barack Obama hails from the black side of town. And not just any black side of town, but the South Side of Chicago, a place that was the cultural and economic capital of black America for decades. Moreover he isn't simply from our side of town, he actually behaves like the people we know. He gives dap in the manner that we give dap. He plays basketball, our national past-time. He paraphrases Malcolm X. He bops through the Senate chamber. He's married to a black woman, and not just a dark-skinned black woman, but one who is the progeny of working class black Chicago. Before he became president, Barack Obama got his hair cut by the same South Side barber every week, and it looked tight. For black men, that is the democratic ideal.