Posted on 08/22/2008 6:28:21 AM PDT by Zakeet
Something about Barack Obama's manner bothers Margaret Cowan.
"There's something egotistical about him," the Sheridan, Colo., retiree said. "It's the way he struts around."
Many swing voters here and throughout the country consider the presumptive Democratic nominee distant, pompous, arrogant, even elitist.
"It's a big issue that he needs to address," said Eric Davis, a professor emeritus of political science at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Obama has Ivy League degrees from Columbia and Harvard universities. He's extraordinarily articulate and exudes self-confidence. Those credentials and qualities combine to strike some people as arrogant.
He counters by reminding voters that he was raised by a single mother of modest means and worked as a Chicago community organizer. Those aren't elitist roots.
Not to mention that presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, the son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals, also could be tagged as having an elitist background.
But McCain's campaign persona is much more regular-guy than professor, rooted more in his towel-snapping naval aviator background than in the traditions of his military family. He doesn't arouse the same reaction.
Voters who voice the objection cite the way Obama cocks his head when he orates, his sometimes professorial demeanor, his failure to speak in succinct sound bites and his noted reference to "arugula" rather than "lettuce" when chatting with Iowans. All are easy to caricature.
The Obama camp says that voters just don't know its candidate well yet.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...

Calling me pompous is code for the N-word!
many blue collar folks are offended by his demeanor.
it’s a social class thing.
Why do people think he is so articulate when every other word he uses in converstion is “uh” or “ah” or “ya know”?
Sure. I'll be his biggest fan if the empty suit manages to lose 40 states and take Queen Pelosi down with him.
If that is elitist, then I am heir to the throne of England.
Absolutely! All he has to do is take the charming Rev. Wright along with him to his next appearance and go on explaining how ‘GOD DAMN AMERIA’ is really an Afro-American term of endearment and that having heard it so many times in the 'reverend's' 'church', he can't understand how others would find it in any way offensive or disturbing. I'm sure the ‘Reverend’ will support him in that.
It’s that silly smirk. Many people claim and hated Bush’s “smirk”. I never really saw it, but with BHO, that is nearly all you see. that and ears.
For the same reason they thought Billy Boy was brilliant and his wife the smartest woman in America. When you are easy to impress... anything impresses you!
Why, because that's exactly how Hillary Clinton talks, and she's the smartest woman in the world.
“Many swing voters here and throughout the country...”
I wish someone would explain to me the “swing voter” thing. The way you vote should be based on your bedrock values, and perception of the way you want our country to work. Once established, that should change very little, if at all.
“Swing voters” must have “open” minds which means empty minds and no moral groudning whatsoever. Sound like your garden variety, mush-brained liberal to me. No wonder the LeftMedia loves to cite them in their endless PropagandaPolls.
Being pompous is the one thing I could see past its everything else about him that has to go.
Being an arrogant elitist is a bonus for a leftist.
The sheep leftists are looking for someone that “knows better” how to run their lives.
fixed
Has anyone else noticed that NObama has stopped using the Grecian Formula and is displaying some grey hair lately?
Perhaps the grey hair is supposed to indicate experience.
He can have all the grey hair he wants - he is still lacking plenty in the experience area.
VAUDINE
Not this voter!
Assuming both candidates mobilize a majority of their base, the election will largely be decided by people who don't pay much attention, make a decision often based upon superficial or silly reasons, then go vote.
The media likes to portray these idiots as “open minded” “non ideological” (as if that is a good thing) and “centrist”; and I imagine some actually are - but most of them are ‘undecided’ only because they are uninformed.
The measure of Obama’s arrogance and pompousness is that MCCAIN is neck and neck with him.
This at a time when the Republicans looked at their prospects in what is ceded as a Democratic year and said, “Screw it, send out McCain as a javelin catcher”
Yep I agree.
That’s what I would love to know. Perhaps what they mean is that he has a strong vocabulary even if he struggles to put the words together. That’s a failure in thinking.
To my way of thinking Obama (lama ding dong) is Al Gore on steroids.
“... The way you vote should be based on your bedrock values, and perception of the way you want our country to work. Once established, that should change very little, if at all...”
Amen to that!
Who was it who said “If you stand for everything, you’ll fall for anything.” Well, if your core values dont’ swing back and forth you don’t have to worry about it.
— Jane
I actually don’t see a smirk on 0bama. Where I see it is in the visage of Jean Forbes Kerry. And that’s a doofus who has no right to condescension whatsoever.
Obama cannot stop the amount of GROWING people that find him pompous.
On a totally different note, the article's reference to a 'towel snapping Naval aviator' opens all sorts of neat photo-shop ideas, too bad I'm terrified by photo-shop.
Exactly right. The real Obama is a thin-skinned, humor-impaired elitist. The DNC can't allow the real Obama to show through, so they have done their best to keep the real Obama under wraps.
The RNC is beginning to take advantage of the vacuum the DNC has created. If the DNC won't define Obama, the RNC will.
“He’s extraordinarily articulate”
At this point I knew the reporter was either confused, intoxicated, delusional, or some combination of the three.
Uh, uh, uh.....uh.
Un-uh.
NObama.
“Articulate?” Oh...you mean he can READ!!
No.
Over at MSNBC they use the word ‘uppity’, they say “pompous “ means ‘uppity’. This is a word from the past south now used to trigger strong emotions of persecution, basically McCain needs to quit election because any criticism of Obama or Obama loosing can ONLY be due to racism.
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