The World Wearies of the Narcissist-in-Chief

“The beauty of being a narcissist is that even when disaster stares you in the face, you feel neither doubt nor remorse.”
–Carl Vogel, A Field Guide to Narcissism

Politicians on both sides of the aisle are becoming perturbed about the president’s “I – ME” fixation – the manifest hubris of Obama. His opening line at the UN speech was “The world has great expectations of ME…” as though the force of his charisma is enough to tame maniacal despots – that his words are all we need – never mind that they are pure perfidy. Obama is also causing angst among our allies.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is especially irked with him. On Greta van Susteren, Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that at the UN general assembly, Obama’s advisors told him not to interfere with his “fantasy about global disarmament” by bringing up the incontrovertible fact that the Iranians were cheating. Kelly’s sources, close to Sarkozy, says Sarkozy thinks Obama is “incredibly naive and grossly egotistical – so egotistical that no one can dent his naiveté” which is making everyone jittery about what that means for the West. “The President of the U.S. is the leader of the free world; and if the President isn’t going to lead the free world, it isn’t going to be led.”

Former Senator Rick Santorum added, “The international community now is beginning to become aware that not only is [Obama] naive in his pursuit of a whole bunch of things including complete nuclear disarmament, but that his ego gets in the way of him learning anything about why he’s wrong on these things. That’s a very dangerous combination – to not know anything and to think you know everything.” He went on to describe “the fantasy of Obama foreign policy” in Iran: “Obama, we now know, knew about this other nuclear facility, which in all likelihood is developing a nuclear weapon, and stood on the sidelines and allowed that movement which would have taken away potentially a regime that was going to develop nuclear weapons that can reach Israel and parts of Europe… at the same time they’re doing that, he’s pulling out anti-missile defense shields… inciting further anger among our European allies.

This is all seen by our allies as just a president who is incredibly naïve, that somehow his persona, his aura will convince people to do things that are not in their interest or not in their history of doing. This is scaring our allies away and at the same time making our enemies look at us as feeble and weak.” Former CIA official Michael Scheuer called Obama a perpetual adolescent and a dishonest man. Foreign policy expert Lawrence Eagleburger said he has no faith in Obama as a leader. Lt. Col. Jeff Addicott said Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing, that they need strategic clarity from him in Afghanistan. Another expert on FNC said he wishes Obama would make a decision about Afghanistan, saying, “I think the ‘narcissist in chief’ is in over his head and is detrimental to our national security.

A less qualified presidential candidate would have been hard to find. Yet Obama was not only a serious candidate and ultimate victor, but during his campaign, he pranced around, acting as if he already was president and the election was merely a ceremony to formalize his taking of the crown… even displaying his own seal which looked remarkably like the president’s official seal. For the narcissist, nothing matters more than maintaining his narcissistic supply. From Obama’s perspective, being chided by a cable news commentator really is a more pressing exigency than the reality of Iran amassing nuclear weapons.

Obama is already showing the truculence typical of narcissists when they sense a threat to narcissistic supply. The current leader of the free world is not in touch with reality. The toady press gleefully accepts his fabrications and denials. And mental health professionals have shown a remarkable lack of curiosity about the mental health of the president of the United States.