OK, we know that by posting this, we will likely ruffle some political feathers …
We just couldn’t resist exposing this blatant error in a mass email from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC).
“Barack Obama is a better man than me”
We’re not taking sides, but, really … come on, Jim … you know better!
When it comes to good grammar, even Republicans may be better men than you.
(click on image for larger view)
This isn’t an error. It’s just the treatment of “than” as a preposition, which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage notes has been commonplace since Milton’s use of “than whom” in Paradise Lost in 1667. Swift, Johnson, Faulkner, Thurber, and even Alexander Pope have used it as well. The MWDEU has a compelling discussion of this point: http://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&pg=PA892&vq=%22than+me%22&as_brr=1&source=gbs_search_s&cad=0#PPA892,M1