The Self-Appointed President

In today's Washington Post, columnist Dana Milbank wrote about Barack Obama's sickening arrogance, which has become unbearable in recent weeks. Coming off of his "victory tour" to Europe and the Middle East, the Democratic Presidential nominee has acted as if he is already president and the November election is merely a formality. In the end I can only hope that Obama's hubris will turn out to be his nemesis.

Milbank wrote:

"Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee."

"Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally."

"Along the way, he traveled in a bubble more insulating than the actual president's. Traffic was shut down for him as he zoomed about town in a long, presidential-style motorcade, while the public and most of the press were kept in the dark about his activities, which included a fundraiser at the Mayflower where donors paid $10,000 or more to have photos taken with him..."

As he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama's biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris."

"Some say the supremely confident Obama -- nearly 100 days from the election, he pronounces that "the odds of us winning are very good" -- has become a president-in-waiting. But in truth, he doesn't need to wait: He has already amassed the trappings of the office, without those pesky decisions."

Full editorial.