You're So Vain

George Will rolls out the theme song for the Obama Administration.

ERRATA:  I need to offer a correction.  In panning Michelle Obama's speech to the IOC in Copenhagen I employed a bit of hyperbole with this:

There's No "I" In "Team" But Michelle delivers "I" And "Me"

...A writing Tip From Tom - if you have a speech where "I" and "me" appear an average of twice per sentence, take it back to rewrite; this might be the unlucky day when someone in the audience does not share your conviction that it is All About You.

From Mr. Will we learn that Michelle was averaging better than two self-references per paragraph, slightly outpacing her husband:

She, Mrs. Obama, used the first-person singular pronoun in some form or another, "I" or "me", sixteen, 34 times in sixteen paragraphs. He used it 23 times in thirteen paragraphs.

I would still love to see a transcript of some of the other speeches.  Maybe this sort of solipsism is the Olympic norm.  Maybe. 

PILING ON: Don Sensing writes about the Mae West Presidency:

The purpose of the trip was simply to splash Obama's photo on the front pages of the world's newspapers, to provide video of him basking in the personal adulation of the European crowd, an adulation that remains very real there even while Obama's popularity slides at home.

This is a man who simply craves attention, who thrives on it, who consumes it as nourishment.

This reminds me of the Philadelphia debate in April 2008 (Hillary was bitterly clinging to her prospects in Pennsylvania, with Wright and Ayers lurking) when Obama explained that yes, he was patriotic and of course he loved his country, because no other nation could have led to The Wonder of Me:

SENATOR OBAMA: Well, look, I revere the American flag, and I would not be running for president if I did not revere this country. This is -- I would not be standing here if it wasn't for this country.

And I've said this -- again, there's no other country in which my story is even possible; somebody who was born to a teenage mom, raised by a single mother and grandparents from small towns in Kansas, you know, who was able to get an education and rise to the point where I can run for the highest office in the land. I could not help but love this country for all that it's given me.

After going back to rewrite Obama was much better in a big set speech on patriotism in June 2008, where he was able to take inspiration from the Minutemen of Lexington and Concord,Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, America's astronauts, and all sort of people not named "Barack" or Michelle".  As to whether his spontaneous, unrehearsed answer was more honest, who can tell?

Comments

[Neo]

I'd like to see Michelle and/or Barack wired to a tazer such that each time they use "I" or "me" they get the juice.

I believe this could "cure" them in a matter of a few days.

A video of the exercise could be put next to the film which has an AH scratched on the film each time the speaker says "ah" between words. Watching that film cured me of using "ah" after one showing.

[Jane]

I think he is in need of a nickname -

"The Vain One" is a start.

[peter]

Michelle's presentation was a real stinkeroo. Obama's I'd give a gentleman's C, upgraded to a B minus for affirmative action. Their handlers will catch on to this glitch of self-reference, and it will be erased from the President's speeches, eventually.
Obama is down, but not out. remember these lefties understand the concept of the long march. Sorry to be such a pessimist. JMHO. Same goes for Acorn.

[Gregory Koster]

No no, Jane. He'd prefer "Barack I" or even better "I, Barack." All we need now is Robert Graves to write it up suitably.

[Appalled]

I think Obama is more Nero than Claudius.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Barack Uvain Obama

[Appalled]

GK:

If I remember, there were two Claudius novels. So, we'd need a nickname for each Obama term.

Term 1 -- I, Obama.

Term 2 -- Obama the God

Sheez...I really am qppalled.

[Rocco]

Is it fair to tally the number of American deaths in Afghanistan since Gen McChrystal asked the president for help?

[clarice]

Well Claudius survived by acting stupi d and stuttering uhm uhm uhm.

[Sue]

On Tapper's site, a commenter zinged us conservatives with the following comment... Obama fit in time to visit with McChrystal in Copenhagen. We should give him credit for that. Or something. My head exploded, so I'm having trouble remembering.

[PeterUK]

"Vanity Pair".

[clarice]

MO offers us tips on how she stays happy:
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/33147195/ns/today-today_health/

I know this is important to you.

[PeterUK]

The meeting wit McCrystal works out at a life every 3.125 minutes.

[Pagar]

"We should give him credit for that"
If he had reversed his priorities and given the day to the Afghanistan situation and 25 minutes to the Olympics, I would believe he should have gotten a little credit. But 25 min with the General --No credit for that, IMO.

I still maintain that these I and Me activities from the Obamas are always designed to cover up some other things they want hidden. In this case it may be this EPA action according to the WSJ.

"Sources that would be required to install pricey "best available control technology" would increase to 41,000 per year, up from 300 today, while those subject to the EPA's construction permitting would jump to 6.1 million from 14,000."

Can anyone imagine the number of new federal employees that will be required to get over 6 million additional EPA construction permits processed each year.
IMO, the EPA action spells the end of private industry in America.

LUN

[Extraneus]

Thank you, Clarice.

[Extraneus]

This is news?

Despite the fierce policy divide inside the White House over Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that the military will fall in line with whatever President Obama decides.

Isn't this just idiotic? What's the point of bringing this to such a boil, to the point of suggesting the possibility of insubordination? Unless it's just a smokescreen for something else.

[JM Hanes]

TM:

"Maybe this sort of solipsism is the Olympic norm. Maybe"

Having live blogged all but the tail end of the Spanish presentation, I can tell you that would be a No. The biography appeal was, in an unfortuante turn of phrase, all American.

[Jane]

"Vanity Pair".

Oooooooooooooooh I like this. I'm going to try and sneak it into the radio show tomorrow.

[matt]

just passed through the TSA checkpoint at LAX/International. Utterly incompetent. And they all had union badge holders.8 years and it keeps getting worse.

Maybe the health care opponents can use this analogy.

LUN on Afghanistan. Got an e mail from a friend there and it's going from bad to worse rapidly. The enemy smells victory.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Uh oh.

"Taxpayers shelled out probably $1 million or more for the president, his wife and others to fly to Copenhagen and back to woo members of the International Olympic Committee. A 2006 congressional study pegged the cost of flying Air Force One at $56,518 an hour. The Pentagon recently said it cost $100,219 an hour to fly the huge, reconfigured Boeing 747 without Obama aboard.... [P]residential travel requires additional spending, especially for security personnel and equipment. Also, first lady Michelle Obama and some administration officials traveled to Copenhagen at public expense ahead of the president."

And please calculate the "carbon footprint" too while you're at it.

[Elliott]

Madrid's presentation featured One Anticuado Samover's personal appeal.

[Elliott]

Samovar

[PeterUK]

"You're so vague".

[Extraneus]

The voting is on at Iowahawk.

[daddy]

"Mrs. Obama, used the first-person singular pronoun... 34 times in sixteen paragraphs. He used it 23 times in thirteen paragraphs."

True TM, but as I've not said before, approximately 1/3rd of Obama's "I's" are from blandly formulaic, "As I've said before's." If you eliminate those blatherings of rhetorical laziness from the tally's, it actually pushes Michelle's "I , me, mine" count up to twice the number of the Pontificator's in Chief.

Therefore I suggest that in future we use an "Obama" as the mathematical term for 17 "I, me, mine's" per standard speech, and a "Michelle" as the mathematical term for 34 "I, me mine's" per speech.

Thus a standard Obama speech equals 1 Obama. But if you add in the "As I've said before's" it becomes 1 x 1.3 = 1.3 Obama's, or 2/3rds of a Michelle. Then when Obama gets all excited in a speech and starts ad-libbing about lip-sticking pigs and flipping the bird during his nostril scratches, he easily turns into a Michelle, or a Michelle and a half, which I suspect is why at baseball games when his tele-prompter is absent, he wears Michelle's pants just in case somebody sticks a microphone in his face

[It is a problem for Obama, but wasn't for Bush.]

Ext: @2:56 Just that Gates felt the need to say it means there is grumbling in the ranks or the fear of grumbling in the ranks. It's also a little pre-emptive, like months ago when he said the services would fall in line with Obama's proposed spending plans for the military. Don't worry, the Tiger is tame to US politicking, but may not like every Lion Tamer's assistant.
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[Ratskeller]

I think Neo's on to something with the suggestion of a zapper type corrective program, kind of like the harmless but attention getting invisible fence works to train dogs. But honestly, it would be even better if someone in charge managed to eliminate the offending "I me mine" tics from reaching the teleprompter in the first place.

[Ric Locke]

It's true the man's a narcissist, but mainly what he is is an underachieving slacker. When the going gets tough, the slack go to Copenhagen (or to the beach for a photo op). He reminds me of me.

Regards,
Ric

[Pofarmer]

"LUN on Afghanistan. Got an e mail from a friend there and it's going from bad to worse rapidly. The enemy smells victory."

The pattern of attacks sure looks that way.

I don't know, but I got a whiff that Obama had McChrystal on the plane to haul him on the carpet for his speeches in London, not for an intelligence gathering assessment, or a tactics meeting. Obama is looking more dangerous than I'd thought.

[Pofarmer]

LUN on McCrystal/Obama tarmac meeting

[Pofarmer]

I see the damned eye test is back.

[Pagar]

If the American leftists have their way, Obama won't have to worry about the military, because there won't be any.

"protests-against-military-recruiters-at-schools-nationwide-tomorrow/"

[Pagar]

"fear of grumbling in the ranks"

From my years in the military, it was when there was no grumbling that things were worse.

My guess is Gates would be the last to hear if something was falling apart.

[Pofarmer]

So, if McChrystal thinks he's been abandoned by Washington, how is he going to handle that?

[Gregory Koster]

Hope for lucky breaks, e.g. another successful terrorist attack that will weaken The Once enough to get him to reverse course and do the right thing. That's some course he has to follow.

I still wonder what McC would do if he was rejected flatly, and simultaneously offered a big promotion, Chief of Staff or Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, to keep quiet.