One Reason Why The New York Times Would Defend Bad Grammar?

Because Obama uses it.

The New York Times, America’s best source for very well-written but absurdly non-centrist news has become a bit more grammatically permissive.  The paper that eschews a comics page, prides itself on its lofty constructions, and even has a blog dedicated to grammatical and stylistic points on its website is apparently all too willing to overlook certain grammatical gaffes as long as they come from the mouth of our nation’s savior.  In defending his habitual flip-flop of “I” and “me”, the Times Op-Ed piece in question called on Shakespearean folios to support the notion that “I” and “me” really are interchangeable!  So it turns out Obama isn’t human after all, he’s just more correct than the rest of us.  Never mind the fact that in Shakespeare’s time, f’s were used instead of s’s and committing suicide was some form of courtship. Oh and never mind the fact that back then there was no real “style” of English, so to speak, as people were generally too busy grappling with crusades and plagues and such (I am aware of the anachronism, this is more for effect) to compose a manual of style.  Like we have now.  Where “me” is for oblique uses of the first person and “I” is nominative.  I guess now English style is determined by the president.  Who knew?

It’s not that I am always grammatically perfect, but this piece seems to be a bit much to this Classicist.

(Case in point – I have made three spelling corrections in this post already!)