On October 24, an Investor's Business Daily editorial stated that "[Sen. Barack] Obama has also been acting as if he's got the presidency in the bag," and then quoted Obama telling a crowd in Virginia: “I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here.” IBD then suggested that “Ronald Reagan ma[de] a point of avoiding overconfidence at the end of the 1980 campaign when it was clear that he would beat Jimmy Carter” and that “Reagan would go after Obama for his arrogance.” IBD wrote: “In his inimitable style, Reagan would no doubt warn Obama that that 'righteous wind' he feels could soon become a head wind, and blow all his hot air right back into his face.” However, IBD cropped Obama's full statement to the crowd in Virginia, making it appear as though Obama was asserting victory. In fact, Obama said immediately afterward: "[B]ut we're going to have to work. We're going to have to struggle. We're going to have to fight for every single one of those 13 days to move this country in a new direction."

Here is what Obama actually said during the October 22 campaign stop in Leesburg, Virginia (compiled from a Breitbart.tv video clip of the first part of Obama's remarks and an MSNBC video clip of the second part):

OBAMA: And in 13 days, if you'll stand with me, then I know that we can win Virginia and we can win this election and we can finally bring the change we need to Washington. Now, that's the good news. I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here, but we're going to have to work. We're going to have to struggle. We're going to have to fight for every single one of those 13 days to move this country in a new direction.

From the October 24 IBD editorial:

Saying a whole bunch of nothing with a nice ring to it is not the only way Obama is copying “the little man on the wedding cake,” as the ever-witty Alice Roosevelt Longworth referred to Dewey. Obama has also been acting as if he's got the presidency in the bag.

“I feel like we got a righteous wind at our backs here,” he told a northern Virginia crowd Wednesday.

[...]

In his book “With Reagan,” Edwin Meese recalled Ronald Reagan making a point of avoiding overconfidence at the end of the 1980 campaign when it was clear that he would beat Jimmy Carter.

Reagan knew, according to Meese, that “planning to govern before being elected would smack of smugness and have a negative effect on the electorate,” and he “constantly worried about being a latter-day Thomas Dewey.”

Imagine how Reagan would go after Obama for his arrogance -- which extends to his misguided policies to tax the investment that drives the economy, mask tax credits as welfare, spend hundreds of billions more annually and use talk to win the global war on terror.

In his inimitable style, Reagan would no doubt warn Obama that that “righteous wind” he feels could soon become a head wind, and blow all his hot air right back into his face.