elite

"We could, following her {Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's} strenuously folksy debate performance, wonder when elite became a bad thing in America. Navy Seals are elite, and they get lots of training so they can swim underwater and invade a foreign country, but if you’re governing the country that dispatches the Seals, it’s not O.K. to be elite? Can likable still trump knowledgeable at such a vulnerable crossroads for the country?"

– Maureen Dowd, "Sarah's Pompom Palaver", New York Times, 4 Oct 2008