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20 Jul 2008 05:24 pm

Hubris Watch

by Chris Bodenner
Der Tagesspeigel's DC bureau chief is frustrated over Obama's shunning of foreign press:

[H]e has almost completely refused to answer questions from foreign journalists. ... The Obama campaign has refused multiple requests from international reporters to travel with the candidate. ... Since I followed the Obama campaign in its early stages and published a sympathetic (and widely read) book in German about the Illinois senator, I probably have more access than most. ... Yet I can only dream of an interview with the candidate. To my knowledge, no foreign journalist has had one.
...
Perhaps Obama considers members of the foreign media a risk rather than an opportunity. His campaign learned the hard way how comments to foreigners can resonate at home -- recall adviser Austan Goolsbee's hints to a Canadian diplomat that Obama's critique of NAFTA was just campaign rhetoric, or former aide Samantha Power's aide "monster" remark about Hillary Clinton to the Scotsman. Or perhaps we're witnessing the arrogance that comes from being so close to power. One of his campaign advisers told me recently: "Why should we take the time for foreign media, since there is Obamania around the world?"

(Andrew began to worry about Obama hubris a few weeks ago.)

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