Woe is me

"The president has been roundly criticized by bloggers for using 'I' instead of 'me' in phrases like 'a very personal decision for Michelle and I'" Patricia O’Conner points out and explains that "The rule here, according to conventional wisdom, is that we use 'I' as a subject and 'me' as an object."
David Brooks, a staunch admirer of Obama's eloquence, may have heard this criticism and decided to avoid I "even when it's right. The term for this linguistic phenomenon is 'hypercorrection’" (O'Connor).

I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me. I got the sense he [Obama] knew both better than me (“The Courtship” ).

In fact, senators do not know a policy area better than him/Mr. Brooks; rather they know it better than he/Mr. Brooks does. Just as well, Barack Obama may know both, politics and political philosophy, better than David Brooks does, but he does not know them better than he knows him. Thus, every "me" in the quote above should have been an "I:" "while they may know a policy area better than I do, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than I. I got the sense he [Obama] knew both better than I do.”

Since "an educated speaker is expected to keep his pronouns in line" (O’Connor), Obama and Brooks should maybe do some woe-is-meing together, a new shtick and the modern adaptation of "woe is me," "meaning to express sorrow and misfortune to others. Glorified moaning, perhaps" (urban dictionary).

WHY?
He (subject) knows (verb) me (object)

He (subject) knows (verb) Bill (first object) better than me (second object) = a comparison of someone’s knowledge of two different objects (Bill and me).

He (subject) knows (verb) Bill (object) better than I (subject) do (verb) = a comparison of different people’s (he and I) knowledge of the same object (Bill). Sentences like this are often incorrectly shortened by omitting the second verb (do): He knows Bill better than I.