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 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.

So, what’s a comparatively young (age 57) man with decades of life ahead to do to compensate? Self-reflection and personal growth are out of the question, of course (this is Barack Obama, after all, the man who claimed to better at everything than his aides charged with speech-writing, economic policy and much more), so it appears that defensive ego boosting is his chosen course.

As it happens, the venue for his speech was Berlin, where in 2008 he addressed the largest crowd of his career. I don’t know the size of his audience yesterday in Berlin, but it had to be a tiny fraction of the 100,000+  he faced back when things were going his way.

Our friends at Grabien have produced a video compilation – almost five minutes of rampant egotism if you can stand it – and offer a count of the personal pronouns employed:

Here’s the breakdown of his personal pronoun use (based on a rush transcript of the event):

“I” — 312

“Me” — 33

“My” — 43

“I’d” — 9

“I’m” — 61

“Myself” — 9

The former president’s comments began on his favorite topic: himself.

“It’s been over ten years since I spoke to a slightly larger crowd in front of the Victory Column when I was running for president,” Obama said to a notably quiet crowd. “I had a little less gray hair then. And since then I’ve been back to Germany I think at least ten times. I’ve been to Europe countless times. But I’m as excited to be here with you as I have been ever when I’ve come to Europe.”

Image credit: Grabien screen grab (cropped)