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"He continues to have a style that is kind of distant, almost professorial and some of the people will regard that as elitist or arrogant," said Stu Rothenberg, editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report.

Critics may be using catchwords such as "arrogance" to set Obama apart, according to New York Times political correspondent Jeff Zeleny.

"Arrogance in this campaign will be perhaps more loaded than it would be in other campaigns," he said. "They're trying to say ... 'He's not one of you.' "

Obama faced a similar battle when critics -- including then-rival Sen. Hillary Clinton -- tried to paint him as an elitist. Those accusations surfaced after Obama characterized some small-town Pennsylvanians as "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion" in the days leading up to that state's primary.

NBA officials allegedly told referees not to call technical fouls on star players so that ticket sales and TV ratings of the games wouldn't be affected, a disgraced ref told the FBI according to court filings Tuesday.

Speaking to the media at an NBA finals that has been increasingly overshadowed by the Donaghy scandal, the commissioner said Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference finals might have been officiated poorly, but honestly and not illegally.

"On behalf of my officials, I'd like to tell you that they don't engage in the criminal conduct of which Mr. Donaghy has accused them of," Stern said.

From the Economist:

"IT WOULD only take half an hour for the French boats and French helicopters to reach the disaster area." Those were the wistful words uttered by Bernard Kouchner, France's foreign minister, as his country's diplomats at the United Nations vainly argued that aid might have to be "imposed" on Myanmar if the military regime refused to co-operate.

Even as he spoke, diplomats from China, Vietnam, South Africa and Russia were mocking his idea that the "responsibility to protect" (a new concept in global affairs, implying that saving human lives might in some extreme circumstances override sovereignty) could be invoked in the case of Myanmar's cyclone. China noted acidly that the idea had not been cited in 2003 when France suffered a deadly heatwave.