Dispelling the Obama “hubris”/uppity charge

[Joanne98]

by jai2 — published on July 30th, 2008
Sen. Barack Obama was accused by a couple of reporters writing for the Washington Post of over-confidence/arrogance/hubris/presumptuous, all of which have been interpreted by many folks in the African-American community as being accused of “acting too uppity.” One accusation was waged by Dana Milbank when Obama began preparing his team for a possible White House transition, something that both Bush and Gore did in the summer of 2000, but because Obama followed this tradition, he is for some reason presumptuous. The second accusation was lodged by Washington Post reporter Jonathan Weisman, referencing a speech Obama gave yesterday before House democrats. Turns out that the quote was taken and reported completely out of context. This is the story as reported by Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post:

Obama’s Symbolic Importance

By Jonathan Weisman

Perhaps he’s beginning to believe the hype.

In his closed door meeting with House Democrats this evening, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama delivered a real zinger. According to a witness, he was waxing lyrical about last week’s trip to Europe, when he concluded, “this is the moment, as Nancy noted, that the world is waiting for.”

The 200,000 souls who thronged to his speech in Berlin came not just for him, he told the enthralled audience of congressional representatives.

“I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions,” he said.

This is what Sen. Obama actually said per Mark Halperin of The Page:

http://www.progresspolitics.com/2008/07/30/dispelling-the-obama-hubris-uppity-charge/