There have been times, as when he recently raised questions about the wisdom of continuing the fighting in Afghanistan/Pakistan, when George Will seems to rise above his past, arch, too-clever-by-half partisan efforts to take Democrats and liberals down a peg. 

Then he writes a column like the one that appears today, where he applies a level of scrutiny to Obama's public words which he never showed the slightest curiosity in applying to Obama's predecessor.  The upshot of the column is to argue that the defining adjective of our President should be "vain".

How quickly Mr. Will seems to forget the stated views of the Bush-Cheney administration that we would be welcomed by the Iraqis as liberators.  And that democracy would flourish in Iraq because the Shi'ites, Sunnis, and Kurds would hold hands, put aside their differences, and sing kumbaya on their way to establishing a model democracy in the Middle East because, because, well, because the Bush Administration really, really wanted them to, of course? 

So, sure, let's talk about vanity.  Granted that anyone who succeeds in getting that job probably does not have an ego of ordinary size.