Obama used the words he did because he thought them appropriate to the audience. Obama wanted rich, white San Franciscans’ money. He was playing to their pale NPR prejudices, reinforcing their sense of entitled sophistication – their sense of elitism. And the Bay Area yokels and Marin county rubes lapped it up. He knows how to con them by appealing to their smugness. He likely believes in very little of what he says to whatever group of voters. His error was in thinking that his words would remain unheard by the shopkeepers, peasants and lumpen.