Je suis un homme sérieux. (I am a serious man)  Charles de Gaulle fancied himself one. So did Richard Nixon.  They are annoying because they take themselves so, so very seriously and insist by their body language and wooden faces, that we all do the same.

The Latin gravitas, having substance, weight, is another word that describes them. They are unwilling to loosen up. For some weird reason that I don't understand their affectation works with the hoi polloi or, as H. L. Mencken described them, the great American booboisie.  

Two of the most fatuous clowns strutting about the current stage are unctuous, righteous Joe Lieberman, and the scowling, so-very-responsible William Bennett.  Whenever I see either one on the box, I grind my teeth, not necessarily at what they have to say, but rather their pontificating certainty.  Lou Dobbs is another "serious man" whom idiots apparently find believable.

When I see William Bennett sitting there in a CNN lineup of political "analysts" scowling, certain that he is morally correct and better than everybody else, I want to land the top of my foot in his cojones.  He is not just another body that CNN rounded up to comment on, say, the incoming election results. He is suffering to be included among them as an apparent equal. He is better then them, and he wants us all to know it. When he, harrumph, makes a comment, it is with a scowl. He suffers the question from his lesser. As a voice of authority, his is second to his precious God.

William Kristol tries to affect gravitas, but he is too lightweight to pull it off. Newt Gingrich also does his best, but in the end, he is a giggle. This narcissistic condition is mostly, but not entirely, a conservative affectation. For all his many worthwhile achievements, Jimmy Carter, alas, is sometimes a bit much. He has a pious upper lip.  David Gergen manages to stop just short of being an offensive homme sérieux.  He does this by a remarkable ability to appear sensible and halfway independent. And every once in a while, he will concede a point or agree with somebody else.

Among females, Barbara Walters is the best example of this species. In one of my early novels, I had Fidel Castro escape incognito from a hotel in New York. As he shaves his beard, he wonders what it would be like to shag Ba-wa Wa-wa. Would she show emotion?

The charm of the Clintons is that they are able to display a range of genuine human feeling. Hillary Clinton's wonderful haw, haw, haw laugh takes over her face. It is genuine. And it is delightful. Barack Obama can give a terrific speech one day and show up at a working-class hamburger joint the next.  He can play basketball or shuffle out to the mound in baggy jeans to deliver the first pitch of the baseball season. As the Aussies would say, good on 'im.

Having set out my thesis of offensive posturing and faux seriousness, I encourage you all to reply with more examples. Or dump on me. Your druthers. I finish this post with a smile. I am serious yes, but I also appreciate the craziness.