Arrogance Charge Dogs Obama, Fueled by Misquote

Mark Halperin corrects the record
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 30, 2008 12:35 PM CDT
Arrogance Charge Dogs Obama, Fueled by Misquote
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks as he is joined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, left.   (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Washington Post reporter Jonathan Weisman fed the GOP line that Barack Obama is more presumptuous than presidential last night by quoting the candidate telling a gathering of House Dems yesterday, “I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” Weisman quips,“Perhaps he's beginning to believe the hype.” But Mark Halperin cries foul at Time, noting that a previous unquoted sentence makes it clear that Obama meant the opposite.

The full quote, supplied by a Dem who was in the unrecorded session: "It has become increasingly clear in my travel, the campaign, that the crowds, the enthusiasm, 200,000 people in Berlin, is not about me at all. It’s about America. I have just become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions.” Weisman today updated his post to include the sentence, but not before the “hubris-as-Obama-Achilles'-heel” story line was all over TV and the Web. (More Barack Obama stories.)

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