Has Media Let Obama's Reversal Pass Unnoticed?

November 26th, 2008 7:06 PM

Obama is starting to feel a bit of pressure from members of the far left of his own party who are beginning to raise their eyebrows over the fact that he hasn't shown any desire to institute any "change" thus far with his staff and cabinet picks even though they had "hope" that he would. Obama went so far as to address the situation today as MSNBC reported on its FirstRead blog.

Obama explains away his lack of "change" and his picking of a plethora of out-of-work Clintonites by saying that who he puts on his staff and cabinet don't matter. It's because he is the change we seek, you see? But, wait, you might ask. If the press were paying attention, they might remember that during his acceptance speech he said this whole thing wasn't about him, it was about us? Wasn't it that we were the change we were waiting for... right?

Is the press going to let him get away with dropping that hoary rhetoric only to say now it's suddenly all about him? Would they let such arrogance, such a flip-flop, from a Republican pass so easily?

We might recall Obama's supposed self-deprecation during his acceptance speech in front of the expensive, simulated Greek columns of Obamopolis at the end of the Democratic National Convention.

"But I stand before you tonight because all across America something is stirring. What the nay-sayers don't understand is that this election has never been about me. It's been about you."

But, now all of a sudden it is all about him?

Well, it certainly looks like he's changed his tune. It IS about him after all.

In response to criticism that he is departing from his promise to bring change to Washington because several members of his economic team were Beltway insiders, Barack Obama said today that his team would combine experience with fresh thinking and his own vision for change.

"Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost," he told reporters at his third press conference in as many days. "It comes from me. That's my job, is to provide a vision in terms of where we are going, and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing."

Of course, the reason he's come out to say that it's really all about him after all is to knock aside any charges that he is starting out as the junior member of the new Clinton era. He wants to assert that he is really in charge, of course.

But, this is a complete reversal of the "we are the ones" rhetoric he was mouthing only weeks ago. But, the "no it's all about me" turn around does fit the arrogance of the non-existent "office of the president elect" conceit he's indulged in, doesn't it?

So far, though, the arrogance has been wholly unremarked upon by a pliant media.

Surprised, anyone?