NBC Honcho: Obama 'Lifted Himself Up From the Streets of Hawaii'

Mark Whitaker, head of the NBC News DC bureau, got off today's unintentional laugh line when he described Barack Obama as having "lifted himself up from the streets of Hawaii."

Oh those mean streets of Hawaii. You know, the sort pictured here at the Punahou school that Obama attended from 5-12th grade.  While attending Punahou, Obama lived with his grandparents.  Readers will recall that grandma Dunham was . . . a vice-president of the Bank of Hawaii.

View video here.

The NBC honcho was responding to an earlier segment in which Scarborough lambasted Obama for recently saying that it was his victory in the Iowa primary that "vindicated" his faith in America, a line on which McCain later jumped.  According to Whitaker, all politicians need a touch of arrogance.

MARK WHITAKER: I think what we saw there was a little hint of Barack Obama's arrogance. And the fact is there is a strain of arrogance in his personality.  We've seem it come out at various times: remember when he told Hillary Clinton she was likeable enough. But the fact is, when you think about it, without that arrogance, would he have lifted himself up from the streets of Hawaii?

Listen carefully and you'll hear someone off-camera [Joe Scarborough or perhaps Tucker Carlson] sardonically repeating Whitaker's "streets of Hawaii" line.