LITTLETON, Colo. ... 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...
I don't think 'pompous' is the right word. I'd say his eliptical way of speaking and tendancy to favor nuance over shooting from the hip decisiveness are his achille's heels as a candidate, though. A lot of Americans seem to favor the latter style, but I'm backing Obama even though I have my reservations. I like to weigh all sides of an issue and see the pros and cons, too. Decisiveness isn't worth much if the decisions made lead the country into a mess. Obama is a good showman and is trying to please all the people all of the time, but I think his knack for mulling things over is more of a pro than a con in the long run. It shows judgement over impulsiveness.
I find him appropriately intellectual and disinclined toward "dumbing things down." This strikes me like the opinion that all British people are pompous b/c of the accent, or that all Southerners are down to earth b/c of theirs.
A different criticism of Obama is that he's all style and little substance, but that strikes me as contradictory if McCain is getting credit for being some kind of straight-shooter, when what he is really doing a lot of the time is giving canned one-liners. Isn't that style w/o substance? Isn't that a questionable, crafted response appealing strictly to others' emotion?
Bush beat Gore the same way. Gore came across as a snobby intellectual and Bush seemed like a guy you could throw darts w/. An awful lot of people have changed their minds about Bush since b/c they've decided there's not much more to him than that frat boy charm.
They're being racist when they call him pompous. It's just another way of saying he's an uppity negro. It's so pompous of him to walk around acting like he's just as smart and competent as a white person. Doesn't he know his place in the social order?
On Friday 8/22/08 - 9:18:43 AM emitchell wrote: They're being racist when they call him pompous. It's just another way of saying he's an uppity negro. It's so pompous of him to walk around acting like he's just as smart and competent as a white person. Doesn't he know his place in the social order?
I've heard that he is clean and articulate though...
All politicians have egos the size of the damn planet. They're all pompous bastards. This is just another thing to rag on Obama to make his followers think twice. Same thing with that stupid "he's a muslim" myth going around, and that he hates white people, and that he's somehow related to Osama bin Laden just because Osama looks a little teensy bit like Obama.
its ridiculous what lengths people will go to, to make legitimate candidates look bad
No. Pompous seems to me (just my opinion) to have an inflated sense of one's self-worth. Bush is pompous (please see him strutting off a plane that he pretended to fly if you doubt my judgment here). McCain . . . well, no, I wouldn't call him pompous, either.
I think that to a certain class of person, if someone comes off as thoughtful and yet self-assured, then they're going to be thought of that way. To them, being a brash idiot, or an 'awww shucks, ma'am' jackass trying to emulate John Wayne show that you're salt-of-the-earth, but if you actually devote thought to things and share those thoughts with people so they can understand, then you're pompous. Especially if, as emitchell so observantly pointed out, the person in question happens to be black.
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