Friday, June 19, 2009

Tiresome Tactic

The second sentence of George Will's last column:
[Obama's] subject -- aside from himself, as usual -- was the bill by which Congress authorized the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.
This reference to Obama's narcissism is a) a proven loser; they tried to make him the Paris Hilton of politics in last year's campaign; b) ironic, given that conservatives are slamming Obama for not sticking himself conspicuously into the Iran conflict, an act that is much more about Obama looking good rather than achieving a specific result that we want. Which is to say, it would be a narcissistic move; and c) totally unsubstantiated.

Here's George W. Bush's first inaugural address, and here is Obama's. The former includes the word "I" eleven times, the word "my" three times. Obama's address includes the word "I" three times, the word "my" just once. I'm not pretending that this is a comprehensive rebuttal, but could Will put forth an argument to support this charge beyond the vague idea that he is a leader of the "me" generation?

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