| By Allison B - Aug 1st, 2008 at 3:04 pm EDT |
The McCain camp has accused Obama of projecting a "holier than thou" attitude throughout his campaign for quite some time now. They started shouting even louder yesterday after the Washington Post printed this quote from Obama when addressing the House Democrats:
"This is the moment, as Nancy [Pelosi] noted, that the world is waiting for... I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."
Too bad the Post didn't even check to see if they got the whole quote. This is closer to what Obama actually said:
"It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It's about America. I have just become a symbol..."
It seems hard to refute that Obama has become a symbol of what America can be, not what it has been for the past 8 years. We have never seen a candidate from either major party resemble anything close to Obama (and no, I'm not talking about his physical appearance). This is someone who has transformed himself from a no-name, one-term senator into the presumptive Democrat nominee. People are excited about what Obama could bring into the White House all around the world... and there's no denying that.
However, I can still see how Republicans would think the quote has some sense of arrogance entwined within it. To say that you have become a symbol of American greatness is a little presumptious (even though a lot of Americans think he is!)
To be frank, Obama probably is arrogant.. and thank goodness he is! I'm not going to vote for some shlep plagued by self-esteem issues. I want my president to be confident and secure in the ideals they believe in and the decisions they make. Obama has shown this by voting against Iraq... he didn't let unmountable pressure take hold of him and vote for something he didn't believe in. He stuck to his guns and it ended up rewarding him in the end...
Also, there is no way that any individual who has run for president does not have any sense of arrogance within themselves. You have to be somewhat self-important in order to think that you're the best candidate to run the country.
McCain's camp is just trying ANYTHING to break down the Obama-hype (aka using Paris and Britney... pathetic much?) In fact, I almost feel sorry for them that they don't have any better material.

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He was not in Congress when the authorization vote took place.
He did vote against the surge, I suppose, but he turned out dead wrong on that assessment.
Now that the war is won, the issue becomes, how do we prevent backsliding over there?