:: Temper, Temper

Barack introduces a new campaign theme: arrogance.

Barack keeps making rookie mistakes. Oh, let us count the ways:

• the multiple "do-overs" (meeting with dictators; violating Pakistan's borders; single payer health care; and so on).....

• the hypocrisy (condemning Edwards for 527 support even though he get 527 support; condemning Hillary for taking money from Hsu when he as taken money from Rezko; condemning everyone for letting lobbyists help his campaign even though he does the same; condemning the Clintons for raising the "race card" while he's campaigning as the second coming of MLK down south; condemning Clinton for not standing up for principles when he ducked four abortion votes to avoid criticism; saying you oppose entrenched Democrats but embracing Ted Kennedy"; and so on).....

• the coded sexism (Hillary was holding "tea parties," decrying racism, anti-semitism and homophobia but omitting misogyny, Hillary won a "beauty contest" in Florida).....
  

And then there's the arrogance. The first famous instance was Barack's sarcastic "you're likable enough" in the New Hampshire debate. His rude body language - turning his back slightly to Hillary and only conversing with John Edwards during the South Carolina debate - was less noticed. Comparing himself to MLK certainly offended me - Barack hasn't put in a fraction of the work and has taken none of the risks that man did.

But Barack has outdone himself in the last two days. We know about his snub of Florida's voters, who had the audacity to not vote for him. In a move seemingly designed to alienate the 850,000 people who voted for Hillary - voters he would need to win the general election - he declared that respect for the Party's arcane rules about the timing of primaries was more important than letting Flordians' voices be heard.

Dumbest of all (arguably, I admit) is what the media is calling "the snub." This refers to the incident before the State of the Union Address, when Barack purposely turned away from Hillary to avoid shaking her hand. I read about it, I saw the series of New York Times photos, and thought it was petty, but not a big deal. Then I looked at the video footage I found here.

The video footage captures the incident much more clearly than the overhead photos. Check out the rude look on Barack's face, and how close he was standing to Hillary when he turned his back.



A different angle, with silly football game graphics. But Hillary nails it with her response. She strikes like a cobra (in other words, she's the opposite of John Day-Late-And-A-Dollar-Short Kerry.



Whoopie is not happy. (But really, how can anyone stand to watch this show??? Yikes, how annoying they are).



The comments from Obama supporters about "the snub" are really funny. These are from Marc Ambinder's blog at The Atlantic, which used these videos - so the evidence was right there..... but look at what these geniuses came up with:

There's the "he was just being polite" approach: And seriously, Obama wanted to give Hillary and Kennedy space. This is more a polite gesture than some dramatic moment. - Posted by mikeVA

There's the "she started it" approach: Also, HRC is capitalizing on this moment. She reached for TED KENNEDY'S hand, NOT Obama's. - Posted by jsc2008

There's the "its all a conspiracy" approach: "There are some in the media who are actively trying to slander Barack Obama as an ungracious boor snubbing poor innocent HIllary. The only person in the media who is giving this its proper context is Maureen Dowd,who gives the whole story in her Wednesday column...The rest of the media is involved in an insidious, under the radar campaign to stop Obama's momentum with a manufactures controversey. These corporate media institutional vioces must rescue Hillary for the sake of their profits for the next 4 years that will be much higher under the circus of Billary than the unity of Obama." - Posted by RKA

That last one was particularly good... and they're still spinning.