A Startling Cocktail of Ignorance and Arrogance

Yesterday, President Obama made an audacious claim that highlights a dazzling combination of ignorance and arrogance: According to the Washington Post,

he said he knows more about Judaism than any other president -- because he read about it. (No, I'm not kidding).

His ignorance is startling. As Bill Kristol points out, Presidents John Adams and James Madison knew Hebrew, while Harry Truman was knowledgeable about Jewish history.Yet their knowledge pales, one assumes, in comparison with the intellectual colossus that is Barack Obama.

Though the president's ignorance does amaze, his arrogance is perhaps less unexpected. After all, this is the guy who said:

"I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director."

And this is the guy whom, when faced with his party's worries about their electoral fortunes in 2010, asserted confidently, "you've got me."

Oh yes, they do. And quite a piece of work he is.