Judging by his campaign’s recent attacks on Bain Capital, President Obama is positioning himself as the tribune of the 99 percent against the Republican 1 percent. This is a time-honored Democratic tactic that runs from Andrew Jackson’s self-description as champion of the “common man” standing up to the “moneyed capitalists,” all the way through Al Gore’s presidential nomination in 2000, when he framed the Republican-Democrat divide this way: “They’re for the powerful; we’re for the people!”

Yet that flattering narrative is at odds with history. Jackson, despite his humble roots, was a man of considerable personal wealth. His rhetoric about representing those without power or political connections belied a cruel indifference to the plight of powerless groups like Native Americans. Gore’s populism similarly masked his upper-class pedigree and his net worth, well in excess of $100 million. Obama himself, with estimated assets of more than $10 million, is an unlikely epitome of the everyman.