The real audacity

I've been having a grand old time, listening to the pundits complain about how arrogant and presumptuous Barack Obama has become. This jive is straight out of The Wizard of Rove's playbook - pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! - but nobody has the courage to use the word that some of them are thinking: uppity.

Can't go there.

So, what's the charge? That Obama's acting presidential before the election?

Yeah, so? You would think that one of the qualities you would want to see in somebody running for president is their ability to act, like, you know, presidential.

How many politicians do you know who aren't arrogant? Anybody who approaches total strangers and shakes their hands and asks them for a vote, or holds a dinner and expects people to pony up thousands of dollars for the singular honor of being in his company, is behaving in a manner that can be fairly described as arrogant or presumptuous.

What's the big deal? That's how our political system works. This imperfect mess is called democracy.

The next thing you know, somebody's gonna complain that some politicians like to chase skirts and drink Scotch.

You want arrogance? The Herald had a story about Obama's $5 million fund-raiser in Boston the other day, and some state rep I'd never heard of was quoted as complaining that Obama has not done more to reach out to her and all the Hillary supporters who are still pouting over the fact that the former first lady isn't going to be the Democratic nominee. Colleen Garry, a Democrat from the beautiful hamlet of Dracut, whined that aside from some e-mails from the Clinton campaign urging her and other HillBillies to vote for Obama, nobody from the Obama campaign has reached out to her.

Well, as Steve Martin used to say, excuse me! If Obama wasn't so dang arrogant, he'd cancel his upcoming vacation in Hawaii and hightail it up I-93, lie prostrate across Garry's lawn and ask - nay, beg - for forgiveness from and the vote of the right and honorable representative from Dracut. And, by the way, if Obama wears that awful Hawaiian Red Sox shirt they gave him at his fund-raiser, I'm voting for McCain.

Personally, I'm sitting pretty. I'd be fine if Obama wins. I like some of his ideas, and he seems more worldly and smarter than the guy who's got the job now, but then, the good representative from Dracut is more worldly and smarter than the guy who's got the job now. And, not for nothin', what's more arrogant than starting a war under false pretenses in which you want everybody else's kids but your own fighting?

I think a President Obama would improve American prestige and security overseas, and despite all the super patriots who clamor for Freedom Fries and don't care what them thar foreigners think, it does matter what foreigners think of us. Our economy and our national security depend on it.

There's a greater chance the next Islamic extremist who wants to kill us will be intercepted in London, Paris, or Bali rather than Jersey City.

But I'd be fine with a President McCain, too. John McCain is a good, honorable man. He's seen a lot, served his country in a time of war, for most of his career has ignored the demonization script that has been passed from one side of the aisle to the other, and stands a better chance of sorting out the immigration mess.

When my pal Dave Nyhan, the great liberal political columnist, died some years ago, one of the first phone calls to his widow, Olivia, was from John McCain. Actually, Stan Grossfeld, the best photographer in the world and one of Nyhan's closest friends, took the call and was deeply moved by McCain's kindness.

Imagine that?

A Republican stalwart like McCain calling to express sympathy to the family of a bleeding heart liberal like Nyhan?

I guess some people would say that was very arrogant of John McCain.

I'd say it was the act of an officer and a gentleman.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com