One thing Barack Obama loves — really loves — is… himself.
Over the years, the former president has used all kinds of events to talk about himself. Often, they’re the most inappropriate venues at which to deliver an egocentric speech.
Like Elijah Cummings’ funeral.
Cummings was a civil rights icon. Born in 1951 to sharecropper parents, he was destined for big things. When he was just 11, he led a group of boys to a whites-only pool in Baltimore and jumped in. Whites protested, holding up signs that said, “Keep Our Pool Germ Free” and “White People Have Rights Too,” the Washington Post reported.
At one point, a mob “surrounded the pool, held back by a line of police with K-9 dogs, while the kids tried to splash and play. Then, over the police officers’ heads, the mob threw rocks and bottles. One of them hit Cummings in the face, cutting his eyebrow and leaving a scar he carried all his life.”
Cummings attended college and then got his law degree. He served for 14 years in the Maryland House of Delegates and then won election to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until his death Oct. 17 at age 68.
But Obama used a eulogy for the late Democratic lawmaker on Friday to talk about himself. In a 15-minute speech, “Obama referenced himself 30 times, averaging twice per minute. Overall, he used the word ‘I,’ 24 times, ‘me’ 3 times, and ‘my’ another 3 times,” Grabien reported.
“I remember I had the pleasure of meeting Elijah’s mother, Ruth, and she told me she prayed for me every day, and I knew it was true, and I felt better for it,” Obama said. “I was thinking I would want my daughters to know how much I love them, but I would also want them to know that being a strong man includes being kind — a strong man includes being kind,” he said.
Obama even sought to buck up his flagging legacy. “Once during my presidency, when the economy still looked like it might plunge into depression, when the health-care bill was pronounced dead in Congress, I would watch Elijah rally his colleagues,” Obama said.
It’s not the first time Obama obsessed about himself in a speech. In April, Obama outdid himself.
“President Obama was in Germany on Saturday, ostensibly to speak about ‘community leadership and civic engagement’ on behalf of his eponymous Obama Foundation, but Berliners soon discovered his main topic of interest was Barack Obama. Obama talking about himself in an almost obsessive manner is no new phenomenon, but today he shattered his own records. Over the course of a 90-minute town hall with ‘emerging leaders,’ Obama mentioned himself an eye-popping 467 times,” Grabien reported then.
After that speech, Thomas Lifson, editor and publisher of American Thinker, offered an insight.
“The post-presidential era of his life seems to be a bit of a challenge to the ego of Barack Hussein Obama. Never shy about referring to himself while president, now that man in the White House is reversing his policies and spectacularly succeeding, it’s got to be hard on his self-esteem. And let’s not forget the psychological pressure that may be building in the wake of the collapse of the Russia Hoax and the possible investigation of its origins,” he wrote.
In his eulogy, Obama also targeted his successor — without naming him, of course.
“There’s nothing weak about kindness and compassion,” he said. “There’s nothing weak about looking out for others. There’s nothing weak about being honorable. You’re not a sucker to have integrity and to treat others with respect.”
Wrote Grabien:
Pointing to a sign referring to “the Honorable,” Mr. Cummings, Obama continued: “That’s a title that we confer to all kinds of people who get elected to public office. We’re supposed to introduce them as honorable. But Elijah Cummings was honorable before he was elected to office. There’s a difference. There’s a difference if you were honorable and treated others honorably outside the limelight.”
The crowd knew Obama was digging at President Trump — who had a notoriously testy relationship with the departed lawmaker — and cheered wildly.