Do you have any evidence to support this? First of all, I don't think it's accurate to classify Palin or Obama as intellectuals. They are politicians, who speak to the masses, they're not reading from scholarly articles. Without having any significant knowledge on the subject myself, I still think it's unlikely that scholars just take Plato as fact these days.These days, modern thinkers tend to put the Ancients on an untouchable pedestal, hailing them from afar without really engaging. Politicians from Obama to Palin use quotes from Plato and Aristotle as indisputable maxims, truths they can cite to support their agenda.
I don't think your objection makes much sense, but I will note that Obama is as close to a scholar-politician as we've had in 40 years. I don't know why you think he doesn't read intellectual journals. He has a law degree. Can't speak for Palin.
Yes, but do you really think that he says what he truly thinks when he's making a speech to the nation? He's trying to get people to agree with him, not have an intellectual debate. My objection is that if you're going to talk about how "intellectuals" view the classics, you should be talking about scholars. I don't think it's fair to lump all intellectuals in with some speech Obama made.
Well, I'll cede the point although I think it's just a case of Obama "appealing to the expert" with regard to political science. That and similar is a valid example of the classics pervading our culture. Anyway, scholars themselves still revere Plato and Aristotle to a huge extent. I think it's a reasonably fair generalization.
To add some anecdotal evidence, I'm taking five courses this semester at uni and within the first three weeks each of my professors had referenced both Plato and Aristotle. The philosophy course and polisci course excused, for the nonfiction writing course, the late 20th century literature course, and the intro to film course, it felt a tiny bit out of place.