Obama. Which is it: Arrogance or Confidence?

They say that if you can back it up, it isn’t bragging. This is why when Babe Ruth called his shot and then blasted a home run exactly where he said he would, he wasn’t boasting. He was merely telling it like it was.
What then of Barack Obama? Is he being arrogant or merely confident in sticking to a gold-plated political agenda? When he tells us that he intends to pursue his health care initiative despite recent setbacks, does this indicate that he knows something the rest of us do not—or that we know something he doesn’t?
Since the difference between arrogance and confidence is the same as that between bragging and truth telling, what Obama is doing depends upon whether he can back up his words with deeds. As of now, it looks like he is in the process of being hoist by his own petard.
Consider this. Obama’s election owed a great deal to his attitude. The very confidence he exuded in claiming that he would produce beneficial changes inspired much of the electorate with a corresponding confidence in him. People took heart in his self-assurance and rewarded him with victory.
But then came governance and his self-certainty was tested in a very different venue. Now the questions were could his “stimulus” legislation hold unemployment under eight per cent and/or would his health care plan provide universal coverage while simultaneously lowering costs. So far the answers seem to be: No.
This leads us to the next question. Is Obama less intelligent than many of us originally believed? Have his apparent mistakes been due to a lack of smarts or something else?
The answer here is clearly in the negative. Our president is one of the most intelligent people ever to hold his office. Indeed, the problem is not a dearth of brains, but a shortage of wisdom.
Despite having declared that he is not an ideologue, Barack Obama incontrovertibly is one. Thus, in continuing to pursue deficit-based policies, he has revealed himself to be a true believer in Keynesian economics. Likewise, in insisting that global warming is an imminent threat, he refuses to acknowledge mounds of counter-evidence.
Yet the difficulty with being an ideologue—which is to say someone so deeply committed to a particular belief system that he cannot recognize when it has been disconfirmed—is that this can lead to serious errors.
Obama’s arrogance—and it is arrogance—stems from an inability to see beyond his personal convictions. As an ideologue, he refuses to entertain ideas outside his settled opinions. As a result, despite his intelligence, he cannot see what is plainly there to be seen.
This is why, after repeatedly claiming to be open to good ideas emanating from every direction, virtually the only ideas he credits are those coming from the left-wing of the Democratic Party. It is why he continues to call the Republicans the party of No irrespective of the many proposals they have put on the table.
Sadly for him, arrogance, as opposed to a justified confidence, is apt to be his undoing. Once people realize the emperor is unclothed, they are unlikely to remain inspired by mere words. If anything, they are liable to feel betrayed, with the unfortunate consequence that his reputation for genius will be impossible to recover.
As for Democratic office holders, if they continue to be mesmerized by Obama’s assurances that his political magic can save them from an electoral disaster, they may be sorely disappointed. In this case, they too will be the victims of misplaced arrogance.
Confidence is a good thing. But if confidence is to remain that, it must be tempered by reality. Those currently running the show in Washington D.C. seem to have lost track of this simple truth.
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University