Obama Announces That He Thinks About Neil Armstrong, and Other Self-Regard

The recent passing of Neil Armstrong has provided an opportunity to insert Barack Obama into the story.  The White House re-cycled a stock photo from last April of Obama contemplating the moon, over his ironic comments (click to enlarge):

Neil’s spirit of discovery lives on in all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploring the unknown – including those who are ensuring that we reach higher and go further in space.  That legacy will endure – sparked by a man who taught us the enormous power of one small step.

Obama clearly excludes himself from those who ensure that ‘higher and further’ stuff in space.  His legacy is that he has done more to shut down the American space program that any other, but he doesn’t let that get in the way of a photo op, with the story centered on him.

A mature personality would heed the numerous observations from people who find this serial self-centeredness as weirdly narcissistic, if not full-blown megalomania.  How many times have we seen examples of Obama shoehorning himself where he has no reason to be, other than to pump up his enormous ego?  Just a few, off the top of my head:

Here is a man who wrote not one but two autobiographies (one of which is of doubtful provenance) before he actually accomplished anything of note.

His acceptance of the Democrat nomination in 2008 was a window on his soul when he proclaimed that “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal”.

At the Summit of the Americas in 2009, he was lectured for 52 minutes by the communist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega about American imperialism, but when asked how he could just sit and take the abuse about America, he shrugged that “it wasn’t about me”.  This was the same summit where Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez thrust an anti-American philippic upon Obama, in front of blazing cameras, then turned his back on him and laughed.  Obama’s response?  He was later joking and shaking hands with Chavez, oblivious to the insult.

Then the Beer Summit, after Obama’s hip-shot crack that the police, mainly Sgt Crowley, had “acted stupidly” when reacting to the tirade from Obama friend Professor Gates.  The summit was to bring the two men together for a photo op of Obama healing the rift, presumably between the two men but more importantly between Obama and the reaction to his a priori assumption about police.  But the photo op included this gem, in the “no words needed” category:

Sgt Crowley assists Prof Gates; Obama is oblivious

Obama rants against Fox News, on the record, as if he should somehow be immune from press criticism – all press criticism, as explained by this excellent piece by James Lewis.

With the increasingly misnamed Arab Spring, Obama declared that “at every juncture … we were on the right side of history”, ignoring how he had flip-flopped almost daily on the events in Egypt, or how he had ignored the golden opportunity of supporting the Iranian popular protests in 2009.  Even the Washington Post called him on his declaration of infallibility.

Much has been said lately about how he leapt to take credit for the killing of Usama bin Laden, repeatedly declaring how he had “directed” the various steps in the operation.  Even if this were true, his constant use of personal pronouns was jarring, and strong evidence exists that Leon Panetta, and probably Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates, finally pulled the trigger on the operation in exasperation over Obama’s dithering, demanded of him by Valerie Jarrett.

Obama compared himself favorably (of course) to other presidents in terms of “legislative and foreign policy accomplishments”, with his conclusion that he ranks better than any president except Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.  Not only is this strikingly over the top, but consider his choices: Lyndon Johnson (Seriously?  One of the Greats?); Franklin Roosevelt (hard to go up against a reign of over 12 years, including the Depression and World War II); and Abraham Lincoln (Pardon me, but while Lincoln is truly one of our greatest presidents, his legislative and foreign policy accomplishments were rather threadbare, seeing as how he was somewhat pre-occupied with the Civil War).

I remember the time when Obama, visiting Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, invited the troops to cheer him.

He then acknowledged the troops who were fighting overseas “on my behalf”, as opposed to fighting for the United States, or supporting and defending the Constitution.

The Viet Nam Memorial is blocked off on Memorial Day so that he can give a speech, and create an opportunity for a photo op that overshadows the Wall with his haloed presence.

The Viet Nam Memorial Wall provides a useful backdrop for an Obama photo op

The White House is caught trying to “soften” the biography of George W Bush, along with strangely inserting references to Obama in presidential biographies going back to Calvin Coolidge.  The Free Beacon was moved to craft their own examples, including this hilarious one:

Obama photobombs Lincoln

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the State Department’s Country Briefs were edited to include references to Obama when describing facts about foreign countries.

There are many more examples and observations (note particularly Frank Fleming's Obama: The Greatest President in the History of Everything), but I just toss these out to ask if Obama and his administration are capable of stopping this ludicrous worshipful reverence.  I don’t believe that they can, so it will be up to the American voters to at least remove Teddy Roosevelt’s ”bully pulpit” from their grasp.

(H/T to the Daily Caller and Sense of Events for the 'Armstrong' photo reference)