Alex Massie of the British Spectator (where I spent many happy years) thinks I misinterpreted President Obama’s remarks in Strasbourg:

We cannot pretend somehow that because Barack Hussein Obama got elected as president, suddenly everything is going to be okay.

As Mr. Massie sees it, this is not arrogance but the opposite:

But itsn’t it obvious that, on this occasion at least, Obama is being traduced in much the same manner as poor old King Canute has been done in by a wilfull misunderstanding of his actions. When Canute ordered the incoming tide to recede he was not expecting it do actually stop and retreat whence it came, rather he was demonstrating to his courtiers the limitations of Kingly power.

That would be a more plausible interpretation if the Canute de nos jours hadn’t already declared that his mere nomination (never mind election, never mind inauguration) marked “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow.”

Consider the sentence immediately before the “everything’s okay” line:

I think that it is important for Europe to understand that even though I’m now president and George Bush is no longer president, al-Qaeda is still a threat.

I’d say this is false self-deprecation — taking every opportunity to deny your spectacularity in order to promote it. (See Kathryn’s post immediately below.)