Obama the Narcissistic Personality

From Commentary Magazine, "Asked at his early August press conference why there has been so little progress in getting the perpetrators of the Benghazi massacre after eleven months, Obama replied, that these things can take time and added by way of example that “I didn’t get Bin Laden in eleven months.”  I find that a flippant and self-centered comment. He could have used 'we' but didn't.

First, it's sad that Obama gave short shrift to the real heroes of the hunt for Bin Laden: the special ops teams or even the decade long effort by the military.  No, he did it.  Second, the sad truth about Benghazi is that everything is a sham and a cover-up.  Obama was AWOL during the entire Benghazi gunfight, which was occurring during business hours in Washington.  According to Panetta in Congressional testimony, Obama did nothing further after being informed of attack and showed no interest in the event.  He said that he gave 'guidelines' but this is most likely a lie.  Sadly, he didn't and doesn't give a damn.  Nothing the President says is quite truthful--only meant for consumption or "spin." 

Think about the President's role in the Syria fiasco. After clearly setting a 'no-go' line, the President a few days later denied that he had set a "red line" in Syria.  He said, "I didn't set a red line, the world set a red line."  After clearly boxing himself into a corner by speaking of "red lines" and flip-floping on the need for Congressional approval, the President used his "gift" in twisting the truth to deflect his role in a real fiasco.

There's something pathological about all of this behavior.

Obama is a trickster.  His expertise in twisting the truth, but appearing to be sincere, was clearly evident in the re-election campaign of 2012.  Since the President didn't have a record to run on (again), his entire campaign was to mischaracterize (lie about) Romney.  Also sad is that many 'low information' voters, of which there are far too many, bought it.  Worse still is that the Liberal media aided and abetted this shameful behavior.

The carefully guarded secret is that Obama is a slacker who is supremely confident, not because of any special competence, but because he's skilled in manipulating, misleading, lying and twisting the truth to escape responsibility or the truth.  He's probably been able to fool nearly everyone all his life.   He's raised lying to an art form.  See my blog Liberal Media and the Myth of Obama's Competence.

'I, Me, Mine' Narcissism

Think about the pitch for the Olympics while he was in Europe in the crisis year of 2009---it was all about I, me, and mine.   From the Washington Post:

In the 41 sentences of her remarks, Michelle Obama used some form of the personal pronouns "I" or "me" 44 times. Her husband was, comparatively, a shrinking violet, using those pronouns only 26 times in 48 sentences. Still, 70 times in 89 sentences conveyed the message that somehow their fascinating selves were what made, or should have made, Chicago's case compelling.

Can't you see the narcissism?  He flew to Copenhagen thinking that he has special persuasive powers. His concern wasn't for anything substantive or important like dealing with the national economic crisis or the Afghanistan war.  He spent more time in Copenhagen lobbying for the Olympic games than meeting with Stanley McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan---which purportedly was the purpose of the trip.   He spent 25 minutes with McChrystal in Air Force One on the tarmac. McChrystal's wife was there too, so it couldn't have been a meeting with any substance in just 25 minutes. It was all just a show. It was more important to put on a show in front of the Olympic committee and showcase himself. It must have been a bitter disappointed that the Olympic committee didn't see his special powers.

The President's entire handling of the Afghanistan war was incompetent. (Has he ever done anything competently?)

Here's some characteristics of Narcissists.  From Examiner.com:

• Expects to be recognized as superior and special, without superior accomplishments. Grandiosity. 
• Requires excessive admiration.
• Is arrogant in attitudes and behavior. Believes that he or she is unique. A sense of entitlement.
• Expects constant attention, admiration and positive reinforcement from others (giving "campaign" speeches even when the campaign is over?? we continue to see campaign speeches that are about nothing--like Obama's recent speech on the 19th "pivot to jobs")
• Envies others and believes others envy him/her 
• Is preoccupied with thoughts and fantasies of great success, enormous attractiveness, power, intelligence and will react with rage when someone presents evidence to the contrary. 
• Lacks the ability to empathize with the feelings or desires of others 
• Has expectations of special treatment that are unrealistic

Doesn't this sound very familiar?  Think about other speeches where his use of "I" or "me" is so dominate.  Why do you think that he favorite thing to do is to give "campaign speeches" even in his 2nd and last term?  His recent speech on "jobs" had no new initiatives at all.  It was all about him, being in front of fawning admirers, and nothing about substance at all.  It's that need to be admired by sycophantic admirers that's a clue to the pathological narcissism.  Even Scott Pelley, of CBS Evening News, admitted that there was nothing new in the speech, puzzling why he had given the speech at all.  I know why and now you do too.

From Victor Hanson Davis' blog,

The president’s malignant narcissism explains a lot of this incompetence. His belief in his own transformational personality has blinded him to reality, and given him the delusions of omnipotence more typical of a child. You have to go back to Neville Chamberlain to find a major world leader so dangerously deluded by self-regard. Whenever Obama speaks to the world, I’m reminded of Chamberlain preening before his cabinet during the Munich crisis, telling his ministers that he was “satisfied Hitler was speaking the truth,” and that “he had established some degree of personal influence over Herr Hitler,” and that Hitler “would not deliberately deceive a man whom he respected.”

Narcissistic Personality Disorder Is a Disease

Is Obama's Narcissism a national security concern?  Maybe, when you consider that Obama's concern is Obama. Meanwhile, nothing is getting done. Deadlines for everything: budgets, his healthcare law implementation, responding to Congress, supposed follow-through in Benghazi are all missed.  From Timothy Daughtry at Breitbart:

The narcissistic personality is defined by characteristics such as an inflated sense of one’s importance, unrealistic fantasies of power and success, the need for constant approval and acceptance, and difficulty handling criticism from others. Narcissism is different from healthy self-esteem; people who simply have strong self-esteem can realistically evaluate their shortcomings as well as their strengths. Such people are not likely to describe their impact upon the world in messianic terms, as Obama did during the 2008 campaign when he prophesied that his election would be remembered by future generations as “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

A nation with $16 trillion in debt is in desperate need of a government that is firmly grounded in reality -- that more borrowing and spending will not cause our deficits to recede any more than electing Obama will change the level of the oceans. A nation with ever-growing healthcare costs needs a sober assessment of the causes and solutions, not takeover by a politician who presumptuously simplifies the practice of medicine to choosing between the “blue pill and the red pill,” and who imposes on the nation a plan that no one had read and that mainstream America did not want. And a nation with tragic levels of unemployment does not need to have its business leaders lectured by a politician who has never met a payroll. To the extent that his catastrophic policies are driven by his narcissistic exaggeration of his abilities and power, the nation is being pushed ever closer to economic Armageddon by the outsized ego of Barack Obama.

When Narcissists Confronted by a Conflicting Reality in the Mirror, they Smash the Mirror

How about the recent severe curtailment of journalistic freedom with the administration's unprecedented and unconstitutional surveillance of journalists and persecution of James Rosen and  the vilification of Fox News?  From Daily Caller, Thomas Drake, a former senior executive of the National Security Agency and the first whistle-blower on NSA who was prosecuted by the Obama administration said;

The Obama administration’s targeting of journalists and their sources is an assault on the First Amendment.  Reporters have shared with me privately that some of their most trusted sources within government are increasingly afraid to speak with them, even off-the-record, for fear that they will be monitored and surveilled,

The DOJ, invoked the Espionage Act to justify its investigation of Fox News reporter James Rosen. That law, signed by President Woodrow Wilson during World War I, was used against journalists only three times in all the presidential administrations since Wilson's.

By contrast, the Obama administration has used the Act six times in cases of information leaked to the media. Obama’s history of suppressing the media has also included ostracizing Fox News and conservative radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh, who have taken a critical stance of the administration.

Coverage that exposed government wrongdoing or embarrassed the government was either opposed or demeaned as untruthful in many cases during the first four years of the administration, Drake said.

“This administration is evidencing what many would call very significant narcissistic tendencies,” Drake ventured, “meaning, when narcissists are confronted by themselves looking in the mirror, they want to smash the mirror.”

Narcissistic Personality Disorder used to be called "megalomania" which should be evocative. History is littered with the disastrous aftermaths of megalomaniacs.  When meglomaniacs are in power, they are dangerous if not restrained.  America is in danger right now.   Don't you think that America continues to pay a big price under this administration?   His biggest supporters, and all the people that can't see his pathology, will pay the biggest price.