Claim That Obama Is Arrogant Stirs a Debate

By JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 19, 2008

Widely published columns chastising Senator Obama for exhibiting arrogance and conceit are stirring a debate about whether such criticism is fair or whether it draws on stereotypes about successful African-American men.

"He can be a bit too cocky for his own good," a veteran political reporter for the Associated Press, Ron Fournier, wrote in a column Monday. He said Mr. Obama is "bordering on arrogance" and that the Illinois senator and his wife "ooze a sense of entitlement."

"There's the calculation of ambition, and the construction of artifice, mixed in with a dash of deceit — all covered over with the great conceit that this campaign, and this candidate, are different," the editor of the Weekly Standard, William Kristol, wrote in the New York Times the same day.

Some prominent commentators said Mr. Obama was being criticized for traits often praised in others. "The moment I saw it, it leapt out at me," a political analyst for CNN who also hosts an African-American-oriented radio show in Chicago, Roland Martin, said about the AP column. "I've had to contend with that same sort of argument all throughout my career. I've seen African-American men with skills called arrogant, yet you have white colleagues who are often called brilliant ….One person's arrogance is another person's confidence."

"Politicians being ambitious is hardly a story, at least not the last time I checked," a policy analyst with a think tank that studies racial issues, David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said.

Mr. Bositis said the column by Mr. Fournier, a former White House correspondent who is well-connected in Washington, might reflect arguments being put forward by Republicans or Senator Clinton's campaign.

Web loggers upset with the AP column were more strident in their attacks.

"Uppity Negro Alert," a disaffected Republican, John Cole, wrote at his blog, Balloon Juice. "This Just In: Who Does This Uppity Negro Think He Is?" was the sarcastic title of a post on a blog devoted to "Race, Politics, and Hip Hop," Too Sense.

However, one of the top African-American political operatives in the Democratic Party, Donna Brazile, said Mr. Fournier's points were valid. "I thought he struck the right balance," she said. "I don't think it went over the top."

Ms. Brazile, who ran Vice President Gore's presidential campaign in 2000, said she has also advised Mr. Obama's campaign that he needs to guard against what she called flashes of "cockiness."

"I have said he needs to show humility and grace and to inspire trust," she said. "I don't know why Obama ought to get a pass when we haven't given anyone else a pass."

Mr. Fournier declined to comment, citing an AP policy barring reporters from granting interviews about their stories. His column also called Mrs. Clinton "the model of overbearing pride" and argued she "has more baggage than Samsonite, yet says Obama lacks 'vetting.'" However, the AP writer wrote that Americans were more likely to excuse presumptuousness on her part.

"Voters expect arrogance from Clinton and her husband, Bill. It's part of the package," Mr. Fournier wrote.

Ms. Brazile said Mr. Fournier's columns have also faulted President Bush and Karl Rove for arrogance. "Ron is an equal opportunity critic of this style in politicians," she said.

A spokesman for Mr. Obama, Tommy Vietor, disputed the portrayals of the senator. "In almost every speech he gives, Senator Obama notes that he's not a perfect man and won't be a perfect president," the aide said. "That type of honesty and humility is rare with any politician."

A call to Mr. Kristol's office yesterday afternoon was not immediately returned.

To an extent, the argument that Mr. Obama is arrogant is an extension of the Clinton campaign's claims that the senator from Illinois lacks the experience to be president.

In December, a Washington Post columnist, Eugene Robinson, foreshadowed the current debate when he urged Mrs. Clinton's campaign not to attack Mr. Obama for his ambition. Mr. Robinson predicted such a critique would be paraphrased by some as a charge the Illinois senator was "being uppity — which opens up a discussion about history and entitlement that I can't imagine any Democratic frontrunner would welcome."

Claim That Obama Is Arrogant Stirs a Debate

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