versus
Barry O looks so unbelievably smug at times that I wanna punch him on general principles. (If you feel the need to report me to the Secret Service, okay. You should probably also tell them about my dream to punch Dubya in the stomach.)
My brain is always in “compare and contrast” mode, and it sent me this image of what Allan West would do to me if I ever punched him…
(Note–I got Mr. West’s photo off Flickr. Couldn’t figure out how to do it their way, sorry flickr. Does the link make it okay?)
World's Only Rational Man 
W.O.R.M., why do you the phrase, ‘compare and contrast’?
If you compare something, you not only spotlight similarities, but also differences.
‘Contrast’ is a proper subset of ‘compare’, and ‘compare’ strictly contains ‘contrast’.
I would apologize, but it would be insincere. As it is, all I can say is that I had the Grammar Queen from Hell one year almost twenty years ago as an English teacher, and what she taught her students (read: etched with acid into the brain*) stays with them.
*Sean Hannity would have said, “Literally etched with acid into the brain…”
Oh, I thought both c’s were obvious. Compare that they’re both African-American politicians, race apparently being something puny humans are concerned with. Then contrast the narcissistic self-regard of one with the other’s concern for his fellow man.
And Sean would say that. Heck, he probably has.