Here's Looking At Me, Kid

The death of astronaut Neil Armstrong last Friday was a sad day for those who still love America and her singular accomplishments. Despite being the first human being to set foot on the moon, Armstrong was always a dedicated, honest and modest man. He had no desire to be a celebrity, even when it was thrust upon him. The tributes to him were many, and he would probably have been uncomfortable with most of them.

As I've done here, most websites which discussed his life and times led off with a picture of Armstrong himself, usually in astronaut garb. Breitbart.com did a fine job of capsulizing the long life and great accomplishments of Neil Armstrong.

"Armstrong's heroism wasn't the lunar walk, though. It was how he comported himself afterwards that showed the true measure of the man. He was among the more famous human beings in history. Yet he retired to a quiet and private life teaching aeronautical engineering and tending to his farm. His walk on the moon wasn't a personal achievement, per se, but an accomplishment for all of humanity.

He made few public appearances. He gave very few speeches or interviews. His resignation from the public square made his lunar walk something mankind achieved rather than something Neil Armstrong achieved. His walk was the culmination of the work, not only of the thousands of engineers and scientists who directly worked on the mission, but also of the countless others throughout the ages who looked up at the skies and dreamed. Armstrong understood this."

One prominent blogger found someone more important than Armstrong to feature in the semi-tribute to the first man on the moon. His name is Barack Hussein Obama, and on his official Obama-Biden Tumblr site, he demonstrated his choice of who should be the true center of the story of Neil Armstrong--himself. Instead of a picture of Neil Armstrong, or a group of famous astronauts, or the lunar lander, Obama led off with a picture of himself staring off into space (appropriately enough).

Aside from his multitude of other flaws, Barack Obama is the most narcissistic president in my memory. His tribute to Armstrong was more about "I" than it was about Armstrong, or the space program for that matter. It was well nigh impossible for Obama to ignore the passing of an American icon without comment. But Armstrong did say a discouraging word about Obama's drastic cuts to the space program. He mused about Americans traveling once again to the moon--this time on a Chinese rocket. He questioned how Obama plans for the American space program, largely defunded and despondent, to reach Mars without the necessary intermediate steps and new, but tested technology.

So the Space-Case-in-Chief did throw something out for Americans about Armstrong: "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." But the photo accompanying the tribute really tells the story of Obama's self-centeredness.

Every time Obama pulls one of these "look at me" pieces, I am reminded of a scene in the movie Beaches. The outgoing and successful entertainer C. C. (Bette Midler) is prattling on about herself to her longtime friend Hillary (Barbara Hershey), a reserved, quiet lawyer. C. C. suddenly stops, realizing the entire one-sided conversation had been about her. She attempts to recover: "Well, enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think about me?"