How many times have you heard the saying “bad behavior isn’t justified by other bad behavior”? I tend to agree with that statement, and I’ll bet you probably do too.

Yet Roland Martin, CNN contributor, used that exact same mentality to defend Barack Obama against charges of being too “out of touch” with regular America. Here’s his latest column from CNN.com:

An ‘average’ American will never be president

Wait stop right there — what? CNN, a respected news organization, lets one of their contributors write a column with that title?

How could Mr. Martin possibly believe that an “average” American will never be President? It’s happened before — look at the humble beginnings of Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon (who had to decline a scholarship to Harvard for financial reasons).

Apparently Mr. Martin and I have a different interpretation of the word “elitist” (or, on the other hand, “average American”). In my definition, an elitist is someone who was born into a wealthy family and never had to struggle with monetary issues, so they are unable to fully understand some problems that most middle-American citizens face.

But, from what I gather, Mr. Martin’s definition of elitist simply means “anyone who is rich.” This is just absurd. I know people, personally, who are rich — maybe even in the dreaded “wealthiest one percent” — but I don’t consider them “elitist.” Breaking news, Mr. Martin: It’s possible to be a down-to-Earth person and still have money.

But let’s give him a chance, anyway. Continue:

So, Sen. Barack Obama is all of a sudden an elitist because he went to Columbia and Harvard? And Sen. Hillary Clinton is an elitist because she went to Yale? Do you actually think Sen. John McCain isn’t an elitist? He went to an exclusive college — the Naval Academy, and that is one of the hardest places to get into. (You can’t even apply unless a member of Congress recommends you.)

Karl Rove, who tries to portray himself as the common man but is just another rich Republican, has called both Democratic candidates elitists. Well, his former boss, President George W. Bush, went to Yale. So did Bush’s dad, former president George H.W. Bush, and his granddaddy, former Sen. Prescott Bush. All three Bushes also were members of the super elite organization Skull and Bones. The younger Bush later went to Harvard.

He walked into the governor’s mansion and the presidency on the strength of his name and his dad’s money and connections. Sounds like an elitist to me!

But no, we’re supposed to be fooled by the cowboy boots, folksy charm and him removing brush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch (don’t forget the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, where all the “regular” folks hang out).

OK, enough, this is pathetic.

You see his mentality? He doesn’t address the issue at hand, he merely attacks (ad hominem) the person making the charge — a lá Karl Rove — or he points to other “elite” people to justify that being elite is a normal symptom.

We get it, Mr. Martin: You think George W. Bush is an elitist. And you know what? I pretty much agree. But that’s not the issue; the issue is whether or not Barack Obama is an elitist.

In the rest of the article, Mr. Martin goes on to detail where each member of the Supreme Court received their respective degrees, and then describes how Clinton, Obama, and McCain are all very wealthy people.

Blah, blah, blah.

In America, being born poor doesn’t mean you have to stay poor; and being rich doesn’t mean you’ve always been rich. No matter what your parents did you still have the opportunity — should you pursue it — to become President.