CAN YOU CHUCKLE SELF-EFFACINGLY IN AN UPPITY WAY?

dnA, John Cole, and Robert Stein have all said what needs to be said about "Obama Walks Arrogance Line" by AP's Ron Fournier -- namely, that Fournier is saying Obama is "uppity" without having the honesty to use the word itself.

I'll just add that Fournier is full of crap when giving specific examples of Obama's alleged "arrogance":

...Obama may not be offensive or overbearing, but he can be a bit too cocky for his own good.

The freshman senator told reporters in July that he would overcome Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in the polls because "to know me is to love me."

A few months later, he said, "Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there."

True, there's a certain amount of tongue-in-cheekiness to such remarks....

A certain amount? The source of that second quote is a Nightline interview from November, and you can watch Obama say it at around 3:30 in this clip. He says it in a joshing way -- understandably, because it's in response to a question from ABC's Terry Moran that's posed as a faux-critical half-joke:

MORAN: What are you doing out here in western Iowa? It's rural -- I wouldn't think it's Barack Obama country.

OBAMA: You know, every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there.

Here's a freeze-frame that's literally from the middle of that sentence:



Arrogant?

And as for Fournier's first example:

...He said he's trailing Clinton now because she is so well known and he is not, but he expressed confidence that will change.

"To know me is to love me," the candidate said with a wide smile during a news conference Tuesday....

Emphasis mine.

Jokes, Ron. Jokes. Or are only white people allowed to be ironic?

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Fournier also takes a swipe at the Clintons, and I don't want to give him a free pass on that, either:

That may seem unfair to a candidate who's running against Clinton, the former first lady who is the model of overbearing pride....

But voters expect arrogance from Clinton and her husband, Bill. It's part of the package. It's a 90s-thing.

I think they've dealt some low blows and have lost sight of what's good for the party (and the country), but "arrogant" isn't the word I'd use. They're aggressive, but they're not haughty. But it's always appropriate to apply any negative word to the Clintons.