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Can Obama win over those voters who find him pompous?
McClatchy News Services ^ | August 21, 2008 | David Lightman and Margaret Talev

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 ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; 2008election; arrogance; democrat; election; electionpresident; elections; elitists; image; obama

Calling me pompous is code for the N-word!

1 posted on 08/22/2008 6:28:22 AM PDT by Zakeet
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To: Zakeet

many blue collar folks are offended by his demeanor.

it’s a social class thing.


2 posted on 08/22/2008 6:30:29 AM PDT by ken21 (people die and you never hear from them again.)
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To: Zakeet

Why do people think he is so articulate when every other word he uses in converstion is “uh” or “ah” or “ya know”?


3 posted on 08/22/2008 6:31:52 AM PDT by truthluva ("Character is doing the right thing even when no one is looking" - JC Watts)
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To: Zakeet
Can Obama win over those voters who find him pompous?

Sure. I'll be his biggest fan if the empty suit manages to lose 40 states and take Queen Pelosi down with him.

4 posted on 08/22/2008 6:33:14 AM PDT by impeachedrapist (Ssshh! I'm a liberal plant AND a stalker!)
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To: Zakeet

5 posted on 08/22/2008 6:34:50 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: Zakeet
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.

If that is elitist, then I am heir to the throne of England.

6 posted on 08/22/2008 6:35:52 AM PDT by crusty old prospector
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To: Zakeet
“Can Obama win over those voters who find him pompous”

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.

7 posted on 08/22/2008 6:37:19 AM PDT by SMARTY ('At some point you get tired of swatting flies, and you have to go for the manure heap' Gen. LeMay)
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To: Zakeet

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.


8 posted on 08/22/2008 6:38:41 AM PDT by FreeAtlanta (NOBAMA - it is for our future)
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To: truthluva

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!


9 posted on 08/22/2008 6:39:40 AM PDT by SMARTY ('At some point you get tired of swatting flies, and you have to go for the manure heap' Gen. LeMay)
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To: truthluva
Why do people think he is so articulate when every other word he uses in converstion is “uh” or “ah” or “ya know”?

Why, because that's exactly how Hillary Clinton talks, and she's the smartest woman in the world.

10 posted on 08/22/2008 6:40:36 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Without the second, the rest are just politicians' BS.)
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To: Zakeet

“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.


11 posted on 08/22/2008 6:41:26 AM PDT by EyeGuy
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To: Zakeet

Being pompous is the one thing I could see past its everything else about him that has to go.


12 posted on 08/22/2008 6:45:10 AM PDT by MES401067
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To: MES401067

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.


13 posted on 08/22/2008 6:46:22 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: Zakeet
"Many swing voters here and throughout the country consider see through the presumptive Democratic nominee as the distant, pompous, arrogant, even elitist he is.

fixed

14 posted on 08/22/2008 6:51:41 AM PDT by polymuser (Taxpayers voting for Obama are like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.)
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To: Zakeet
It his positions, especially his support for Partial Birth Abortion that should be an anathema to every sane voter out there. What I want to know is how can the Doctors that perform this ghastly procedure, how do they sleep at night? Do they have a soul?/Just Asking - seoul62.......
15 posted on 08/22/2008 6:54:24 AM PDT by seoul62
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To: Zakeet; All

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.


16 posted on 08/22/2008 6:56:47 AM PDT by 66-442hot (It isn't smart to kill the golden goose........)
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To: Zakeet
One word answer-----NO!

VAUDINE

17 posted on 08/22/2008 7:03:07 AM PDT by vaudine (RO)
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To: Zakeet

Not this voter!


18 posted on 08/22/2008 7:07:20 AM PDT by Islander7 ("Common sense and common decency are uncommon virtues among America's left.")
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To: EyeGuy
Unfortunately the media pays attention to the “mushy middle” of undecided unidealistic unintellectual voters because THEY DECIDE ELECTIONS. Unfortunate, but true.

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.

19 posted on 08/22/2008 7:16:48 AM PDT by allmendream (If "the New Yorker" makes a joke, and liberals don't get it, is it still funny?)
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To: Zakeet

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”


20 posted on 08/22/2008 7:26:32 AM PDT by wildbill
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To: MrB

Yep I agree.


21 posted on 08/22/2008 7:30:31 AM PDT by MES401067
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To: truthluva

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.


22 posted on 08/22/2008 7:49:06 AM PDT by definitelynotaliberal
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To: ken21
I'm 60 years old and through my life I've found that people displaying this much arrogance and pomposity cannot change. It is a deep and permanent character flaw. When they try to hide it, it just stands out more. They have little in the way of a sense of humor and they absolutely cannot be self deprecating. They can, however, be very condescending.

To my way of thinking Obama (lama ding dong) is Al Gore on steroids.

23 posted on 08/22/2008 7:51:26 AM PDT by timydnuc (I'll die on my feet before I'll live on my knees.)
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To: EyeGuy

“... 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


24 posted on 08/22/2008 7:53:06 AM PDT by quintr
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To: FreeAtlanta

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.


25 posted on 08/22/2008 7:53:08 AM PDT by definitelynotaliberal
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To: Zakeet

Obama cannot stop the amount of GROWING people that find him pompous.


26 posted on 08/22/2008 8:01:47 AM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
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To: Zakeet
I'm really getting tired of the media's constant repetition of the 'raised by a single mother of modest means' lie.

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.

27 posted on 08/22/2008 8:02:33 AM PDT by norton
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To: Zakeet
Obama's problem, said John Straayer, a political analyst at Colorado State University, is that "there's still a mystery element to this guy, and the opposition so far has done a good job of defining him."

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.

28 posted on 08/22/2008 8:04:56 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski (No good deed goes unpunished.)
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To: Zakeet

“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.


29 posted on 08/22/2008 8:16:30 AM PDT by PreciousLiberty
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To: ken21

“Articulate?” Oh...you mean he can READ!!


30 posted on 08/22/2008 8:51:49 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: Zakeet

No.


31 posted on 08/22/2008 10:15:02 AM PDT by dr_who
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To: Zakeet
RE :”Calling me pompous is code for the ...”

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.

32 posted on 08/22/2008 10:36:51 AM PDT by sickoflibs (Obama: "We can tax our way out of any problem")
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