If it was me, Mr. President, I’d Get a Grammar Lesson.

If it was me, Mr. President, I’d Get a Grammar Lesson. I have been thinking for some time that I would like to write a blog on the subjunctive.   One of my blog followers, an astute man named Gabe, was kind enough to give me fodder for bringing this topic to the top of my list. For the second time in The Essay Expert’s blogging history, I turn to President Obama’s grammar bloopers.   The first was his incorrect use of â€Å"tenant† when he meant â€Å"tenet† in his speech following the Tucson shootings (The President Makes Grammatical Errors Too!). This week I’m pointing to Obama’s statement about the texting transgressions of Congressman Weiner. Obamas Grammatical Error Said the President, according to many news sources, â€Å"If it was me, I’d resign.† I won’t spend a lot of time explaining that a more proper structure of this sentence would have been, â€Å"If it were me, I’d resign.†Ã‚   Put simply, this is a conditional statement, speaking about an event that is not sure to happen and that did not definitively happen.   Any time you see the word â€Å"if† in a sentence, watch out for the subjunctive.   The correct verb form is most likely â€Å"were.† A good explanation of the subjunctive can be found on EnglishClub.com. I also won’t spend a lot of time harping on the fact that the President used the incorrect form of the pronoun â€Å"me.† The truly correct phrasing would have been, â€Å"If it were I, I would resign.† Note that â€Å"I† is a subject pronoun.   But who really talks like that? Meet The Press:   To Quote or Not to Quote? What interests me most is the way the press handled the situation.   You might remember that when the President said â€Å"tenant† instead of â€Å"tenet† in his Tucson shooting speech, the transcription of his speech corrected his error.   In the Weiner situation the press went to bat for Obama again but not universally.   Ive created a snapshot of press coverage of the issue below. [Challenge to reader:   How many double entendres can you find in the body of this article? If you find one, report it in the comments!] The New York Times Michael Barbaro of The New York Times covered up (or worked around) the President’s grammatical errors as follows in his article, Obama Suggests Weiner Should Resign: President Obama told NBC News that if he were in Representative Anthony D. Weiner’s position, â€Å"I would resign,† according to a senior network executive. Fox In contrast, Fox quoted Obama word for word in their article, Obama Says He Would Resign in Weiners Position: I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign, Obama told Ann Curry in an interview scheduled to air Tuesday on NBCs Today. How many times do you think that one got tweeted? Youtube/Hollyscoop.com Hollyscoop.com, in the midst of making references to porn star names, fixed the subjunctive issue on its youtube video report, but did not touch the improper pronoun: Now the President is saying, â€Å"I can tell you that if it were me I’d resign†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Maybe these folks need a grammar lesson too. Pundit Press Pundit Press left the error waving in the wind, both in the title and body of its article: Title: PRESIDENT OBAMA: If it was me, I would resign. Body: Obama did not call for the resignation of Anthony Weiner, but did say,  I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign. CNN Finally, CNN’s article by Ashley Killough maintains picture perfect grammatical integrity in its headline, Obama On Weiner:   ‘I Would Resign’, but exposes Obama’s actual wording in the text: (CNN) President Barack Obama told NBCs Ann Curry in an interview to air on Tuesdays Today, that if he were in Rep. Anthony Weiners shoes, he would leave Congress. I can tell you that if it was me, I would resign, Obama said. Grammatically correct or not, Obama’s opinion surely had an impact.   Weiner has stepped down, probably due to the uncovering of his lies more than anything else. If you were a reporter, how would you have handled Obama’s grammatical error?   And why did Clinton survive his sex scandal, whereas Weiner was trampled?   The Christian Science Monitor has shed some light on this question in its article, Why Democrats turned on Anthony Weiner, but not Bill Clinton. I suppose we can all be comforted that no one (even The Essay Expert) will push for politicians to step down due to grammatical transgressions. Category:Grammar Writing TipsBy Brenda BernsteinJune 20, 2011 7 Comments Penelope J. says: June 22, 2011 at 3:05 pm Agree with the above comments. Also, Obamas use of the English language is generally correct except for the occasional slip such as this one unlike his predecessor, famous for his grammatical bloopers. For me, its a big relief to have a president who can speak and pronounce (think nucular) English correctly even though Obamas dependence on the er is annoying. Log in to Reply The Essay Expert says: June 22, 2011 at 6:25 pm Penelope, I couldnt agree more! Log in to Reply The Essay Expert says: June 22, 2011 at 6:23 pm Thanks for your insight Eric. I wonder if Were it me or Were I to would sound stilted. I approve of grammatical errors when necessary to sound conversational. Even If it were I would have sounded a bit high and mighty. Log in to Reply The Essay Expert says: June 22, 2011 at 6:24 pm Rita, I agree completely! And it scares me how many educated people do not know the rules of how to start a sentence with a pronoun or pronouns. I do my best to educate when I can! Log in to Reply The Essay Expert says: June 22, 2011 at 6:25 pm The Wizard of Oz the answer to all our grammatical troubles!! Love it. Log in to Reply Jarom says: June 23, 2011 at 11:05 am That was an enjoyable post Brenda. 🙂 Log in to Reply The Essay Expert says: June 23, 2011 at 11:32 am Thanks Jarom! Log in to Reply