Check out the clip of Barbara Walters's interview of the Obamas, aired on GMA today, and tell me whether you find something off-putting in the way Walters poses what is, after all, a very banal question. And then there's the President-elect's self-centered answer . . .
View video here.
Adopting a tone of maudlin sincerity:
BARBARA WALTERS: You know, I don't have to stress the fact that this is such a hard time for this country. Do you have a Thanksgiving message that you would like to give to the people?
"The people"? Wouldn't "Americans" or perhaps "your fellow Americans" be customary? And "give," instead of "send" or "share"? Maybe I'm being picky here, but have a look and tell me if it doesn't almost come across as Walters inviting a monarch to bestow something on his huddled peons.
BARACK OBAMA: I want to remind people that, as tough as times are right now, and they're a lot tougher for millions of people around the country than they are for Michelle and I [N.B. dual alert: grammar and Rush's 'I'm richer than you are'] that, we have been through tough times before, and the extraordinary blessings of being an American, of having a nation that has a tradition of communities pulling together. A country where somebody like myself, or somebody like Michelle, has a shot, no matter what the circumstances.
That's right. "The people" should be inspired by the example of . . . their Great Leader.
