Obama: "I Have a Gift"

Harry Reid reveals in an epilogue of the paperback version of his book, The Good Fight, that Obama told him, "I have a gift."

Translation: "I have a huge ego, poor judgment, and serious personality flaws."

WASHINGTON -- Everyone knows President Barack Obama can deliver a great speech, including the president himself, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The paperback version of Reid's memoir, "The Good Fight," is coming out May 5 with an epilogue called "The Obama Era." Reid said he was impressed when Obama, then a first-year senator from Illinois, delivered a speech about President George W. Bush's war policy.

Democrat Reid writes: "`That speech was phenomenal, Barack,' I told him. And I will never forget his response. Without the barest hint of braggadocio or conceit, and with what I would describe as deep humility, he said quietly: `I have a gift, Harry."'

A copy of the book's 15-page epilogue was provided to The Associated Press. Reid said in an interview he hesitated about citing Obama's comment because he knew it could be interpreted as bragging.

"To be honest, my wife, she said, `don't tell people that,"' Reid said. "She's afraid it could be taken the wrong way. But she's heard me tell lots of people that, and every time she goes `don't do that.' Now it's there for thousands of people to read."

Reid is struggling to do damage control and prevent Obama from appearing arrogant and conceited. By using his wife's remarks, he's trying to spin the goofy Obama quote to make Obama seem less like a jerk. Reid is failing miserably.

He makes Obama come off like a pompous ass or a creepy cult leader or both. Either Obama thinks he's superior and the smartest guy in the room, or he believes that he's the chosen one with supernatural forces at work.

Just what is Obama's "gift"?

That he can read a teleprompter? Actually, I don't think he's very gifted at that.

Reid said in the book that he talked to Obama in 2006 about running for president, and Obama expressed doubts about his ability to win.

"I was resolved to stay neutral in the coming campaign, but I told him that in my view the stars could align for him. `If you want to be president, you can be president now,' I said. `I don't know, Harry,' he said. `I don't think so."'

Obama became a U.S. senator in 2005.

In 2006, Reid told Obama that he could be "president now."

Really?

If Reid's ramblings are true, he certainly doesn't consider experience to be a very important aspect of a presidential candidate's qualifications.

I suppose Reid is trying to inflate himself by claiming early on he saw Obama as presidential material and ready to assume the office at his choosing. Reid is declaring himself to be a political soothsayer.

In the end, Reid looks like a doofus. Obama hadn't shown himself to be worthy of the presidency. Reid was obviously buying into the cult of personality.

To Reid's credit, he was right that the country would buy into the cult, too. An unqualified, inexperienced individual, if properly handled, can become president of the United States. Sad, but true.

On the matter of Obama's claim, "I have a gift, Harry"--

I suppose his supporters will swoon over that statement. Obama understands that he was chosen to be the savior. He has a gift. Greatness was thrust upon him.

I don't see it that way. Obama is not a great communicator. He's no Reagan.

Obama lacks sincerity and substance. He doesn't come clean about his radical Leftist principles. If his intelligence were truly off the charts and he didn't feel the need to disguise his Leftist extremism, Obama wouldn't be so frighteningly dependent on his army of teleprompters. He could function on his own. He wouldn't need the technology to prop him up.

When Obama told Reid that he has a gift, if he was referring to the gift of teleprompter technology, then I guess I'd agree with him.

Obama has a gift, but sometimes it malfunctions.