Miseducation

Giving his two cents to the fake John Kerry "outrage" story, Victor Davis Hanson at National Review's The Corner notes --

It used to be that millionaire FDRs and JFKs felt sympathy for those of the lower classes and wished to ensure that the hoi polloi had some shot at the American dream.

Samples of VDH's bio:

Hanson was educated at the University of California, Santa Cruz (B.A. 1975), the American School of Classical Studies (1978–79) and received his Ph.D. in classics from Stanford University in 1980 ... Hanson was a full-time farmer before joining California State University, Fresno, in 1984 to initiate a classics program. In 1991 he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award, which is given yearly to the country's top undergraduate teachers of Greek and Latin..

All those credentials, and he commits this grammatical blunder?

Usage Note: Hoi polloi is a borrowing of the Greek phrase hoi polloi, consisting of hoi, meaning “the” and used before a plural, and polloi, the plural of polus, “many. ... Since the Greek phrase includes an article, some critics have argued that the phrase the hoi polloi is redundant.

Now, the above goes on to argue that it may be pedantic to criticise "the hoi polloi" -- but how could an academic and self-proclaimed expert in ancient Greece make that excuse?

UPDATE: In fairness to the Corner, John Derbyshire is doing a fine job of being the contrarian on the Kerry story.