Barack Obama may have added more fuel to the fire for those who want to paint him as arrogant or elitist, praising himself Wednesday as "a pretty darn good politician."

In a speech to Jewish community leaders in Philadelphia, the Democratic presidential candidate was asked whether the recent controversy over Jeremiah Wright, Obama's retiring pastor, could lead to him being attacked by Republicans in the fall and create the possibility of turning his candidacy into one akin to failed candidates George McGovern and Michael Dukakis.

At the end of a long response, Obama said: "Let me make one last point about the comparison to McGovern and Dukakis, both excellent men, but I’m a pretty darn good politician. And I can give a pretty good speech and I can connect and inspire the American people in ways that I think will become apparent. I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t pretty good at mixing it up. And so much of the attack machine that’s been built up is part of the old politics."

Click here to watch Obama say he's a pretty darned good politician.

Obama added that his recent remarks suggesting bitter Americans cling to guns and religion as a way to vent their frustrations with Washington hasn't upset voters because it's true.

"I’m suggesting people are bitter about the state of their economic lives that the Washington Beltway hall of mirrors has just gone nuts, and then they open the paper, look at the polling yesterday, it turns out most people, it hasn’t had an impact in terms of how they’re thinking. The reason is because people are worried about their gas prices and they are worried about losing their jobs and they are trying to figure out what are we going to do to try and figure out energy dependence and what are we going to do about Iraq. People understand that we have huge problems that we have to deal with. And ironically that my ability to address those core concerns will be so much stronger in the general election than in the primary

He added that his campaign isn't about him, it's about the direction of this country.

"It's been the American people deciding, this is an opportunity for us to take the reins and cut through all the nonsense and making this country work again and I think people desperately want that. And I think that we can continue to, I am very confident about our ability to win in November."

Nationwide, Obama is currently a slightly stronger candidate against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain than Hillary Clinton, but she's currently running stronger in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey -- states that Democrats have to win if they are going to win the presidency, said Democratic pollster Dough Schoen, a FOX News contributor.

Schoen added that Obama has been much more effective on the campaign trail than on Capitol Hill so it remains to be seen how good a politician he is.

"I think she can make the case that Obama is not who he says he is. He says he's a unifier. I think Hillary in my estimation has done more to create unity in the Senate and produce bipartisanship than Obama is," Schoen said.

"He suggested there that he's a good politician, he'll be a good candidate. He will learn from the past, but it's an open question," he said.

FOX News' Matthew Alexander contributed to this report.