Obama clearly makes the case that he's the former.
Did you see the Onion video about this? It has this fake black rights activist going on the show to say how great it is that a black man is being viewed as elitist. From little more than an animal to better than everyone else in a hundred years. It's certainly a big step.
Only in America could a man like Obama (a born demagogue) be considered more royal and more a member of the privileged elite than a Bush.
I hate the notion of having to learn Spanish because a larger population of America speaks it as their first language.
What about the intellectual and nation-building benefits of learning a second language? If you're going to learn one, it may as well be one spoken widely in the western hemisphere. You'll be able to go backpacking through South or Latin America without having to speak English, or travel through Europe as a bilingual. Intellect and health-wise, bilinguals benefit from a greatly reduced risk of Alzheimer's and tend to deal better with cultural difference.
Obama could have been less specific, as you'll get benefit out of any second language, but for North Americans Spanish is the logical choice. Tonnes of people nearby speak it, even inside the US, it's a Romantic language so it's not too hard to learn initially and it's widely spoken world-wide so resources are freely available. If he'd recommended Pashtu or Urdu I'd be raising my eyebrows at his cheek. Spanish just makes sense.
On a related note:
Why are you against a paternalist leader? Clearly a near majority of the American people have no interest in politics and are more than willing to leave the heavy thinking to their political betters. If such is the will of the people, and voting records suggest it is, paternalism is inevitable. If the citizenry refuse to be adult about politics, they're going to be treated as children. At least Obama is honest about his intentions.
