"They talk about me like a dog."

I heard Obama say that recently and my first thought was, "I like dogs." If I disapprove of what you are doing or did not like you I would not talk about you like a dog. A pig, maybe. Or a cockroach. Not a dog.

A post at Vox Popoli brought home the reason this didn't sound right to me.

To me, the most interesting aspect of this is that the first negative thing that sprang to mind when Obama wanted to express how people were badmouthing him, he thought of "a dog". That is not a normal American expression. One works like a dog, one is as loyal as a dog, one is dog-tired, whereas the negative forms tend to utilize the term "bitch" instead. Using dog in this perjorative sense is much more common in the Arab world.

It seems to me that this is, in addition to demonstrating Obama's inability to withstand legitimate criticism, an example of his Indonesian Muslim upbringing showing itself in a moment of stress. This doesn't mean he is a crypto-Muslim, but it is rather yet another indication of his essentially foreign perspective. In support of this interpretation, I would note that while I have seen many distinctly negative terms applied to Obama since he first launched his presidential candidacy, I have never read nor heard of him being referred to as "a dog".

All I can say is yes, it makes sense.