Okay, I'm Really Late On This One...

...but if you haven't read Peggy Noonan's latest, you really should. I don't always agree with Ms. Noonan; big whoop. Who says you always have to agree with someone to enjoy their work? She's a helluva writer, that's why I like her, and when she's on, she's up there with the great ones.

Her latest, on the pomposity of senators, is a lovely thing - observe as she masterfully deflates the pretensions of one Barack Obama:

This week comes the previously careful Sen. Barack Obama, flapping his wings in Time magazine and explaining that he's a lot like Abraham Lincoln, only sort of better. "In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat--in all this he reminded me not just of my own struggles."

Oh. So that's what Lincoln's for. Actually Lincoln's life is a lot like Mr. Obama's. Lincoln came from a lean-to in the backwoods. His mother died when he was 9. The Lincolns had no money, no standing. Lincoln educated himself, reading law on his own, working as a field hand, a store clerk and a raft hand on the Mississippi. He also split some rails. He entered politics, knew more defeat than victory, and went on to lead the nation through its greatest trauma, the Civil War, and past its greatest sin, slavery.

Barack Obama, the son of two University of Hawaii students, went to Columbia and Harvard Law after attending a private academy that taught the children of the Hawaiian royal family. He made his name in politics as an aggressive Chicago vote hustler in Bill Clinton's first campaign for the presidency.

You see the similarities.

That's good stuff...and keep in mind, I kinda LIKE Barack Obama...but his swipe at Lincoln (he doesn't really buy the 'great emancipator' image) and his phoney-baloney comparison of his struggles to those of the Great One are, as Noonan suggests, the first signs that the ego-inflating atmosphere of the 'World's Most Exclusive Club' is getting to him. Once again, for those who still need convincing, a wonderful example of why the Senate so seldom produces presidents (hat tip to PoliPundit, who was generous enough to link to my Obama musings, not once, but twice - many thanks, kind sir!)...