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It’s All About The “O”: The Arrogance of Barack Obama
Townhall.com ^ | February 14, 2009 | Brian Birdnow

Posted on 02/15/2009 5:02:29 AM PST by Kaslin

Much has been written in recent weeks concerning the Obama Administration’s early struggles and stumbles, particularly in matters such as properly vetting prospective cabinet nominees, differentiating between campaigning and governing, and staying on message during a rambling press conference. Some commentators have tried to downplay or dismiss these difficulties, while others have chalked them up as the inevitable errors of an amateur who has been pushed too far, too fast. What many of the pundits tend to overlook in their analyses of President Obama’s first weeks is that these early misadventures illustrate the petulance and arrogance that stand as the defining elements of the man’s essential character.

The examples of President Obama’s overweening sense of pride, hubris and superiority are, in fact, legion. Certainly a man who writes his autobiography twice by the age of forty-three, who makes no secret of his intention to be the President of the United States while he is a neighborhood agitator in Chicago, and, later, as an Illinois state senator is not a model of modesty, humility and self-effacement. Moreover, his short tenure in the U.S. Senate was marked by continued exaggerations of his experience and the supposed jurisprudential acumen he demonstrated as a lecturer at the University of Chicago School of Law.

In 2006 Senator Obama voted against confirming John Roberts as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court based on differing “legal opinions” concerning affirmative action and abortion. Then-Senator Obama used his former position as a law school lecturer to issue a mild rebuke to Roberts for his insufficient respect for fictitious constitutional guarantees. Similarly, Senator Obama invoked his experience when helping his party create a scandal over the Bush Administration’s firing of eight U.S. Attorneys. Obama solemnly declared, “I was a constitutional law professor, which means, unlike the President, I actually respect the constitution.” In actuality, Barack Obama taught courses on racism, voting rights, and social policy. During his twelve years at the law school Obama never published a single work of legal scholarship. (Although he did find the time to engage in five electoral races) Still, this meager record of accomplishment did not stop the Senator from claiming that he was something of a constitutional expert as opposed to the presumably unlettered President Bush.

During the 2008 campaign examples of Obama’s arrogance and petulance abounded. His infamous slap at small town Americans who bitterly clung to their guns and religion received wide play and surprised many observers who had grown used to the tightly scripted candidate on the campaign trail. In this same forum Obama also boasted that he understood the world better than Hillary Clinton and John McCain and that he needed no foreign policy expertise on the bottom half of his ticket.

Late night television comedians reaped a bounty of material last year when the Obama campaign introduced a logo similar to the Presidential Seal for their candidate. The logo displayed a bald eagle clutching an olive branch, which is identical to the Presidential Seal, but the logo had a large “O” covering the eagle’s body rather than a shield. Above the eagle written in Latin were the words “Vero Possumus” which translates roughly to “Yes We Can” the more-or-less official chant at Obama rallies. This seal was quickly retired after drawing much unfavorable comment, yet it says a lot about the healthy ego of the candidate.

Also during the 2008 campaign many of the reporters who covered candidate Obama noted his inflated rhetoric regarding himself. In February of last year he responded to Senator Clinton’s charge that he was more talk than action by responding, “It’s true I give a good speech. What can I say? There’s nothing wrong with that.” He later said about himself, “I have become a symbol of America returning to her best traditions.” Shortly after nearly a quarter million Germans chanted his name at the Berlin rally Obama, the proud citizen of the world, claimed without the slightest cringe of embarrassment, “…this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” Such examples of Obama’s overheated rhetoric strike many as colossal arrogance but we must remember that this is the candidate who assured the world that “We are the change we have been waiting for!”

The voters responded favorably to the Obama appeal, despite the arrogance, petulance and thin-skinned nature of the candidate, himself, by electing him to the Presidency in a near landslide. Now that he is the President we see further evidence of Obama’s arrogance. He has apparently declared war against Rush Limbaugh, and certainly the verbal potshots are the first salvoes of the campaign to reinstate the “Fairness Doctrine” and silence conservative talk radio. The President refused to discuss his stimulus plan in any substantive manner with GOP House Whip Eric Cantor, responding to Cantor’s reasoned arguments by stating icily “I won.” Vatican officials criticized Obama for the high-handed manner in which he overturned the ban on state funding for family planning groups that perform abortions overseas.

The new President has allowed this sense of entitlement to slip from official duties into personal matters as well. The Democrats vociferously criticized the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate for her excessive spending on clothing and cosmetics last October but President and Mrs. Obama have hired a hugely expensive designer to redecorate the White House at a cost estimated to run over $ 100,000. The Obama inaugural gala also proved to be the costliest event of its type in history. Of course, what is another $ 40,000,000 or so when the nation is facing trillion dollar deficits each year for the next couple of decades? Finally, when reporters mentioned that the White House seemed warm to the point of stuffiness in late January, senior adviser David Axelrod said that Obama was a native Hawaiian who likes his house warm, and added that one could grow orchids in the warmth of the family quarters. He must have forgotten that Obama lectured Americans last spring that it was no longer permissible to drive SUV’s, eat as much as we want, and keep our thermostats set at seventy-two degrees the year round. When you have been elected to the Presidency and lived in taxpayer subsidized housing you can forget about practicing what you preached to the public eight months earlier.

These aforementioned incidents and quotes offer an illustration of Barack Obama’s worldview. Like most liberals Obama claims to be receptive to all points of view, but he really tolerates no opinion but his own. He cavalierly dismisses those who disagree with him as “bitter and frustrated” and he does not hold himself and his entourage to the standards he easily imposes on everyone else. Barack Obama gave the world many previews of his stunning arrogance long before November 4, 2008. We have seen since then that these examples were not anomalies. The central element of Barack Obama’s character is a stunning, almost breathtaking arrogance. The American people will see much more of this in the coming years.


TOPICS: Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: arrogance; bho2009; bho44
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To: Kaslin
“Vero Possumus” which translates roughly to “Yes We Can”

In some rural locals down south it translates into "fresh road-kill"....get the stove ready.

"Here's another one of them 'vero possumuses'.....we got us enough now for two meals!"

41 posted on 02/15/2009 6:13:07 AM PST by capt. norm (Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.)
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To: johnthebaptistmoore

In addition, didn’t the so called stimulus bill give several billion to ACORN, the government organization already shown to be heavily involved with dem voter fraud?

I sense no matter how bad things deteriorate in the future, even if 60 percent votes against him, O will still win, handily.


42 posted on 02/15/2009 6:16:12 AM PST by reaganbooster
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To: I still care
I’ve been saying this since day one. Obama’s biggest failing is that he is an arrogant SOB.

If Bambi keeps his nose up like that, he's going to bump his noggin on the door arch of Marine One... again.

43 posted on 02/15/2009 6:16:18 AM PST by 6SJ7 (Atlas Shrugged Mode: ON)
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To: Kaslin

I have trouble with anyone that is that conceited. If you could buy him for what he is worth and sell him for what he thinks he is worth you could pay off the national debt.


44 posted on 02/15/2009 6:17:40 AM PST by Big Horn (Rebuild the GOP to a conservative party)
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45 posted on 02/15/2009 6:19:25 AM PST by razbinn (I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,and to the republic for which it ...)
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To: Kaslin

America is stuck with yet another affirmative action, Section 8 family in public housing....the Obamas.


46 posted on 02/15/2009 6:21:29 AM PST by astounded (The democrat party is a clear and present danger to America)
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To: livius
...but the fact that he got elected at all is amazing.


47 posted on 02/15/2009 6:22:34 AM PST by WVKayaker ("There are no facts, only interpretations." -Nietze)
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To: Kaslin

Reading this, I am reminded that the 52% of the American people really are either stupid of misinformed.


48 posted on 02/15/2009 6:29:58 AM PST by edge10 (Obama lied, babies died!)
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To: Girlene
My borrowed tag line says it all!
49 posted on 02/15/2009 6:37:13 AM PST by Coldwater Creek ("There is no insanity greater than electing a pathological Narcissist as president.")
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To: Northern Yankee
I used to wonder how Hitler could come into power in Germany back in the 1930's. I also used to think it could never happen here. Sadly I don't think that anymore.

I used to think the same. Some elderly people who lived through those times and are now in the US shake their heads and say that they recognize the signs, though. Not long ago I read an article written by an old German lady; perhaps someone can find it?

And I have had talks with an old man who actually was in the German Army as a youngster. He thinks Obama taps into the same well of hysteria and foolish gratitude to which Hitler appealed. He reminded me that though we today see the wartime photos of Hitler and feel revulsion, when Hitler rose to power he was considered handsome, cultured, sweet-natured, reasonable, and charming. The Germans elevated him at a time of great national distress and thought he'd solve their problems, as we have done with Obama. The elevation of a monster can take place in many cultures.

He fell silent then and did not attempt to defend the behavior of the Germans afterward, but I could well imagine certain groups of Americans yielding to the worse aspects of their nature, too.

50 posted on 02/15/2009 6:44:07 AM PST by ottbmare
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To: Northern Yankee

Yes, it has given me, too, great clarity in just how Hitler could have come into power. They scoffed at him, at first. And then he started getting the low-lifes to enforce his policies; they had no qualms about beating up Jews, arresting innocent folks, harrassing, etc.

Way too much like the ACORN folks.


51 posted on 02/15/2009 6:44:19 AM PST by bboop (obama, little o, not a Real God)
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To: bboop

Exactly!


52 posted on 02/15/2009 6:46:30 AM PST by Northern Yankee (Freedom Needs A Soldier)
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To: RoadKingSE

Unless they had something big on her ?


53 posted on 02/15/2009 6:53:34 AM PST by 1066AD
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To: Girlene
I've seen Chavez in that exact pose. Makes me feel kinda sick.
54 posted on 02/15/2009 6:53:42 AM PST by Republic (Jedem das Seine)
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To: razbinn

The “Il Duce” pose ....... http://home.btconnect.com/theatrotechnics/images/mussolini.jpg


55 posted on 02/15/2009 6:55:26 AM PST by shooter223 (the government should fear the citizens......not the other way around)
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To: Kaslin

I now call him “The Won”.


56 posted on 02/15/2009 6:57:25 AM PST by RichInOC (No! BAD Rich! (What'd I say?))
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To: Kaslin

His coronation was $170 Million not 40. Can we get a refund on that bomb?

Pray for America and Our Troops


57 posted on 02/15/2009 6:57:56 AM PST by bray (The District of Corruption fits Obama like a Glove)
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To: WVKayaker

Yes. One can’t overlook the Power of Voter Fraud.


58 posted on 02/15/2009 7:01:18 AM PST by livius
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To: Kaslin
Good article....except for the "electing him to the Presidency in a near landslide" bit.
59 posted on 02/15/2009 7:07:42 AM PST by Churchillspirit
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To: SonOfDarkSkies
"Pride (arrogance) is the most Satanic of character flaws and it is Obama's most salient feature"

Quite similar to Jimmah in this attribute.

60 posted on 02/15/2009 7:21:16 AM PST by Paladin2 (No, pundits strongly believe that the proper solution is more dilution.)
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