WaPo's Milbank: Obama's Biggest Challenger Is His Own Hubris

You can now include the extremely liberal Dana Milbank in the growing list of Washington Post reporters seemingly disgusted with the arrogance of presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Frankly, one has to start wondering what's going on at the Post as writer after writer comes out from under the Obama-ether and begins pointing an accusatory finger at the would-be president in a fashion quite contrary to most in the media.

With that as pretext, readers are advised to strap themselves in tightly as they review this column from a man that is so far to the left that he's practically a regular on MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann (emphasis added):

Barack Obama has long been his party's presumptive nominee. Now he's becoming its presumptuous nominee.

Fresh from his presidential-style world tour, during which foreign leaders and American generals lined up to show him affection, Obama settled down to some presidential-style business in Washington yesterday. He ordered up a teleconference with the (current president's) Treasury secretary, granted an audience to the Pakistani prime minister and had his staff arrange for the chairman of the Federal Reserve to give him a briefing. Then, he went up to Capitol Hill to be adored by House Democrats in a presidential-style pep rally.

Along the way, he traveled in a bubble more insulating than the actual president's. Traffic was shut down for him as he zoomed about town in a long, presidential-style motorcade, while the public and most of the press were kept in the dark about his activities, which included a fundraiser at the Mayflower where donors paid $10,000 or more to have photos taken with him. His schedule for the day, announced Monday night, would have made Dick Cheney envious. [...]

The 5:20 TBA [on his schedule] turned out to be his adoration session with lawmakers in the Cannon Caucus Room, where even committee chairmen arrived early, as if for the State of the Union. Capitol Police cleared the halls -- just as they do for the actual president. The Secret Service hustled him in through a side door -- just as they do for the actual president.

Inside, according to a witness, he told the House members, "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," adding: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

As he marches toward Inauguration Day (Election Day is but a milestone on that path), Obama's biggest challenger may not be Republican John McCain but rather his own hubris. [...]

It had been a long day of acting presidential, but Obama wasn't done. After a few hours huddling with advisers over his vice presidential choice, Obama made his way to the pep rally on the Hill. Moments after he entered the meeting with lawmakers, there was an extended cheer, followed by another, and another.

"I think this can be an incredible election," Obama said later. "I look forward to collaborating with everybody here to win the election."

Win the election? Didn't he do that already?

Once again, let me remind readers that Milbank is one of the far-left Post writers that has routinely gone after President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and virtually anyone associated with this White House.

If Obama's arrogance is beginning to wear on him, it must be overbearing.