Lots of columnists have taken up the “arrogance” theme. There is so much material to work from, after all. But this may be worst yet, from Ron Fournier of AP no less (and this piece will add plenty of fuel to the fire on the opinion vs. reporting controversy, no doubt). There are the petty insider digs (hey, I thought everyone got along at camp Obama):

Privately, aides and associates of Obama tell stories about a boss who can be aloof and ungracious. He holds firmly to views and doesn’t like to be challenged, traits that President Bush packaged and sold under the “resolute” brand in the 2004 election. For Bush, those qualities proved to be dangerous in a time of war and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. If arrogance is a display of self-importance and superiority, Obama earns the pejorative every time he calls his pre-invasion opposition to the war in Iraq an act of courage.

And then there are the more telling policy jabs:

While he deserves credit for forecasting the complications of war in 2002, Obama’s opposition carried scant political risk because he was a little-known state lawmaker courting liberal voters in Illinois. In 2004, when denouncing the war and war-enabling Democrats would have jeopardized his prized speaking role at the Democratic National Convention, Obama ducked the issue.

Gosh, when Bill Clinton called it a “fairytale” everyone jumped down his throat. And then Fornier goes in for the kill:

Voters won’t cut Obama as much slack on the humility test because he’s sold himself as something different. While rejecting the “me”-centric status quo and promising a new era of post-partisan reform, Obama has said the movement he has created is not about him; it’s about what Americans can do together if their faith in government is restored.

Several things are noteworthy here. First, we can pretty much retire the “media is in the tank for Obama” excuse. (Did Steve Schmidt write the story for AP?) Second, Obama has never dealt with harsh media scrutiny and it will be interesting to see whether he gets out of his cloistered media cocoon or retreats further to try to dampen down the media’s newfound sense of independence and aggressiveness directed toward him (both on policy and frankly at him personally).

And finally, where were all the arrogant stories during the primary? Then he was confident and now he’s verging on obnoxious. What changed? Other than dispensing with Hillary Clinton , eight or ten major flip-flops and a faux seal not that much. But it is apparently a whole new ballgame for the media.

UPDATE: It should be noted that the AP column is from March. but its themes and the examples cited are now a part of the media meme. It simply took awhile for the rest of the press to catch up.