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AP's Fournier Excoriates Obama For 'Arrogance'
In one of the most aggressive broadsides leveled against any of the presidential candidates since...well, since Keith Olbermann's "Special Comment" of last week, the AP's Ron Fournier, writing for his "On Deadline" column, fires a double-barreled shot squarely at Senator Barack Obama, labeling him "arrogant," "cocky," and "ooz[ing] a sense of entitlement."
...there's a line smart politicians don't cross -- somewhere between "I'm qualified to be president" and "I'm born to be president." Wherever it lies, Barack Obama better watch his step.
He's bordering on arrogance.
The grist for Fournier's mill seems to stem from an assortment of quotes the candidate has made on the stump: such as "Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there" and "It will light upon you...You will experience an epiphany. And you will say to yourself, I have to vote for Barack. I have to do it." And, indeed, it should be said, a line gets crossed once you refer to yourself in the third person. As a general rule, that's the province of Brazilian soccer players and Saturday Night Live impersonations of Bob Dole.
Fournier, being minimally charitable, notes that Obama's statements involve "a certain amount of tongue-in-cheekiness to such remarks -- almost as if Obama doesn't want to take his adoring crowds and political ascent too seriously." Some of the original reporting done on those quotes bear that out: Newsweek's Andrew Romano, for example, assessed Obama's "epiphany" remark at the time of its utterance as an attempt to "both [lampoon] and slyly [encourage] the perception." Similarly, one commenter on MSNBC's First Read offered:
Just to add context because you guys will not. This part in Fournier's article, a few months later, he said, "Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there." referred to a Nightline interview when he was joking with the reporter.
Still, Fournier out to lower a boom or two:
Privately, aides and associates of Obama tell stories about a boss who can be aloof and ungracious. He holds firmly to views and doesn't like to be challenged, traits that President Bush packaged and sold under the "resolute" brand in the 2004 election. For Bush, those qualities proved to be dangerous in a time of war and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
If arrogance is a display of self-importance and superiority, Obama earns the pejorative every time he calls his pre-invasion opposition to the war in Iraq an act of courage.
Still, don't expect the Clinton camp to cite Fournier's analysis too widely, because he takes the time to brutalize Clinton, as well:
That may seem unfair to a candidate who's running against Clinton, the former first lady who is the model of overbearing pride. This is a woman, after all, who claims experience from her eight years as first lady but won't release her White House records; who trails Obama in delegates but deigned to suggest he'd be her running mate; and who has more baggage than Samsonite yet says Obama lacks "vetting."
"But voters expect arrogance from Clinton and her husband, Bill," Fournier says, "It's part of the package. It's a 90s-thing."
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March 17, 2008 03:42 PM