Like vs. as

It’s important for politicians to convince Americans they’re just like us — regardless of the number of homes they own, or the fact that they are running presidential campaigns orchestrated by strategists, speech writers and makeup artists.

The simplest, surest way to make this point, it seems, is to use the word “like,” and, apparently, to use it often. But it’s not always grammatically correct.

Michelle Obama made this mistake in her DNC speech last night when she suggested that Barack Obama is like Joe Blow.

“And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he’d grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities that they never had for themselves.”

Here’s the deal. Conjunctions have the power to join two complete sentences (complete, because they have a subject and verb). Like is not a conjunction. So anytime you’re using it to link two clauses, and there are verbs on both sides, you’re making a mistake. You need to use a conjunction, such as as.

Michelle’s first two uses of “like” are OK, because she’s only linking nouns, no verbs in sight. “His family was so much like mine.” And his grandparents “were working class folks just like my parents.”

But her third use of the word like gets her into rhetorical trouble (which is widely understood to be the worst kind of trouble a person can be in.) Barack’s single mom “struggled to pay the bills just like we did.” She should have said, “just as we did,” because did is a verb, hence requiring a conjunction.

Which goes to show there is seldom a need to use the same word three times in a row — even if your husband has a really unusual name that his own VP has botched.

For the record

Weather references in Michelle’s speech: 3
1.) “that clear February day”
2.) “that hot summer day”
3.) “a cold Iowa night”

Uses of the phrase “improbable journey(s)”: 3