What socio-economic background do you think President Obama comes from?

[whathehell]

[alsame]

1. Do you mean as a child gowing up or as an adult prior to his

political career?

[whathehell]

3. I mean as a child growing up.

[JerseygirlCT]

7. Well, that would have changed my answer considerably. nt

[alsame]

9. Thanks. Now I can vote! n/t

[uppityperson]

2. Do you mean Barack and Michelle family, or family he was raised in? nt

[whathehell]

4. the family he was raised in.

[uppityperson]

5. Thank you. nt

[whathehell]

6. Sure!

[Captain Hilts]

8. You can't be working class with a mother with a graduate degree.

College degrees weren't nearly as common for women back then, let alone a grad degree.

[whathehell]

10. She didn't complete her education until the early 1990's

She was working and on food stamps while she was getting her masters degree.

[Captain Hilts]

13. It was common practice for college students to be on food stamps, they closed that loophole

in the late 70s.

But, the fact that she had an education and aspired for more demographically in the 'intelligentsia' category for polling and some census categories.

Women got degrees at a much lower rate in the early 60s - the Ivy League was still all-male as were many state schools.

[whathehell]

15. Yes, but she still had to work while going to school and raising her son.

In general though, I thought his mother and his mother's parents were "middle class"..not working class, or "upper" middle class.

[Captain Hilts]

16. Yes, middle class but the education factor gives them an asterix.

In many ways, Michelle had it a lot tougher, as did Bill Clinton, having to go to lousy schools in addition to being the first generation that went to college. Being the first to go to college is a real hurdle statistically.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Obama's mom wasn't a black woman.

[cali]

21. sure you can. I know quite a few people who

were/are working class and pretty damned poor who have obtained degrees while raising a family. I have one friend, a single mom who worked for head start and went to college part time and she struggled and was on food stamps.

[H2O Man]

11. Various.

[Richard Steele]

18. And sundry. nm

[H2O Man]

22. Right.

His childhood included a diversified group of experiences. Some involved being in the "middle class," and some were the experiences of moderate poverty. He also had the opportunity to witness the lives of others, who were in more extreme economic positions. Adding to this his being the child of a white woman from the US, and a black man from Africa; living for a period with his grandparents in a Pacific island setting; attending a variety of schools in Indonesia; and living in a single-parent household, and one can only conclude that there is not a single lable to pigeon-hole President Obama's childhood. Attempts to do so can only fail.

[Bucky]

12. The time he was with his grandparents in Hawaii were certainly middle class

Living in Indonesia with his mother would've been lower middle class.

[Captain Hilts]

14. And going through the effort of putting him in a private school is another sign. nt

[JonLP24]

19. LOL think? What does history say?

I'm not 100% sure but I'm suprised such a topic is put into an opinion poll of what Obama's background is.

[cali]

20. lol. a third of the voters on this poll think he came from an upper middle class background?

wow. how did we get so many ill informed people on this board?

[H2O Man]

23. Approximately 33%.

[spinbaby]

24. That depends

Economically, lower middle class; culturally, upper middle class.

[ForrestGump]

25. Kenyan. Muslim.

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