Obama Hubris

The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, long a champion of Barack Obama, fears that his move of his convention-night acceptance speech to a stadium and his agreement to put his entire family to "Access Hollywood" are troubling signs of cockiness.

He writes, "I can barely credit that Michelle Obama agreed to this and that Barack Obama went along with it - it's not what they would have done a few months ago. One great aspect of the Obama marriage has been the way in which they appear to have brought up their daughters as very regular girls, down-to-earth, normal and sane. Displaying them in this way was bad judgment and poor parenting. Fame is a toxin. Children deserve to be protected from it as much as they would from lead paint.

"Any one of these misjudgments would be a trivial lapse - and we all make mistakes. It's the combination that concerns me - and the possibility that this campaign is becoming far too cocky for its own good."

My take: Look back to all of the critical missteps throughout the '08 campaigns --- Hillary as inevitable, Giuliani as inevitable --- and it all seems to come down to arrogance or hubris. That's one of the biggest dangers facing Obama, and there will be plenty more talk of it if his fund-raising numbers for June don't exceed expectations. (McCain and the GOP upped the ante today: $95 million at the end of June). And Angela Merkel's reservations to the suggestion of an Obama speech at the Brandenberg Gate may save him from a big misstep. It may be just the thing that starts a backlash.