It may come as no surprise that President Barak Obama tends to focus on himself. In a recent speech Not counting instances when he quoted a letter from a citizen or cited dialogue from a movie, President Barack Obama used the first person singular–including the pronouns “I” and “me” and the adjective “my”–199 times.
“It is lonely, me just doing stuff,” Obama said at the speech in Austin, Texas, according to the official transcript and video posted on the White House website.
“I’m just telling the truth now,” Obama told the crowd. “I don’t have to run for office again, so I can just let her rip. And I want to assure you, I’m really not that partisan of a guy.”
President Obama contrasted and compared his administration to that of previous presidents such as Lincoln, Eisenhower and Nixon. Mr. Obama would like to claim that these great leaders had it easier than he did and that is why they enjoyed their successes. Often these presidents faced tougher opposition and had to reach across the isle and make deals.
Mr. Obama, however, believes the great achievements of the past happened without the hard work of negotiating.
“My favorite president is the first Republican president, a guy named Abraham Lincoln,” Obama said. “You look at our history, and we had great Republican presidents who–like Teddy Roosevelt started the National Park System, and Dwight Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System, and Richard Nixon started the EPA.”
The White House presented Obama’s speech, which the president delivered at Austin’s Paramount Theatre, as “Remarks by the President on the Economy.” The remarks, the White House reports, ran 40 minutes, and the full transcript (including annotations for “laughter” and “applause”) is more than 5,500 words.
By contrast, President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettyburg Address was only 272 words–and did not include any form of the first person singular.
