Evaluation of Example 4: President Obama

Passage:

“[President Obama] actually said (in 2007): ‘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'm a better political director than my political director.’ Obama is a man of considerable intelligence. But he's not half as transcendentally smart as he thinks he is. He needs a servant in his chariot reminding him he's not an immortal.”

Charles Krauthammer, "The Big Bird Counterattack," Index-Journal 94 No. 166 (14 Oct. 2012), 9A.

Analysis:

Not an ad hominem fallacy since President Obama is the issue being discussed. This is not a irrelevant attack on the person stating the issue even though the self-assessment of President Obama's character is considerably embellished. The passage simply describes a disagreement in attitude over what Obama thinks of his own abilities.