To Peggy Noonan: this is what a character disorder looks like
Here’s Peggy Noonan, being eminently reasonable, as is her wont:
Common sense says a chastened president would acknowledge the obvious””some things aren’t working, he has made some mistakes””and, in Mr. Obama’s case, hit the reset button with Congress. Reach out, be humble. Humility has power. It shows people that you have some give””you get the message, you are capable of self-correcting.
That is not what he’s doing. The president is instead doubling down on hostility, antagonism and distance.
What a mistake. What a huge, historic mistake, not only for him but also for his party.
It’s not a mistake.
Let me explain. First of all, although you’ve come a long way towards understanding Obama compared to 2008, Peggy, you’ve still got a long way to go. You see, Obama doesn’t want to self-correct, because in his mind he’s not done a thing wrong. He’s not just saying it’s not his fault, he really believes it’s not his fault.
In fact, nothing bad is his fault. And everything good is to his credit.
We all are familiar with the word “narcissism.” It is a trait. But it also can be much more than that—a character disorder, a personality disorder. That doesn’t just mean there’s something wrong with a person’s character or personality, either. It means there is something more basic that’s out of whack. It means there’s a leitmotif that runs through the entire personality, something that is usually either unchangeable or very very difficult to change.
For Obama this theme is narcissism, which appears to permeate everything he does.
The mystery is that it would be a mystery to anyone at this point. And yet it appears to be. Hope dies hard, and the idea that Obama can change dies hard as well.
[NOTE: The narcissism problem was so severe with Obama that many people noticed it almost from the start. I was one of them; this post of mine, written in the summer of 2008, was already remarking on it. But I was hardly alone.]
From the word go it didn’t take a rocket scientist, in my view, to see that this Obama guy isn’t wrapped tight. I mean, everybody is something, but this fellow should never have been elected. And (most surprisingly) Peggy bought it, lock, stock, in barrel.
Oh. And Chris Matthews isn’t wrapped tight either. But I digress.
I’m not sure if this is a disorder or a limit to his capacity as a being. A reason I do not believe that limited intelligence should be used as a defense in criminal cases, save in comparison to racial norms. Same same.
We don’t know the half of it. It’d be very interesting to know who all Valerie Jarrett has on speed dial, and who has her on theirs.
Obama has been playing the victim card from the get go. He’s always the victim. All those bad things that happen to him are somebody else’s fault. He didn’t do anything wrong.
Also in the Peggy article:
It’s as if he doesn’t think he has to work with others, he only has to be right.
That describes one heck of a lot of party faithful as well. I think that’s why I’m reluctant to say this can be simply put down to his narcissistic tendencies.
“You see, Obama doesn’t want to self-correct, because in his mind he’s not done a thing wrong. He’s not just saying it’s not his fault, he really believes it’s not his fault.” neo
Bingo.
On another blog, commenter Steve57 gets at Obama’s (and the left’s) underlying thinking and attitudinal world view more clearly than I can recall.
Neoneo, after Obama’s out of office (can’t come soon enough) have you thought of writing a book about him, maybe a biography, or an examination of the whole Obama phenomenon? You have a lot of insights into his character, and I think it would be great to see them pulled together into one place.
There were many indicators of Obama’s narcissism, long before he promised to turn back the tides. But the most obvious was that a man with his paper thin resume and utter lack of accomplishment thought he should be President in the first place.
Try count the references to “me” or “I” in an Obama speech.
It is always about Barack.
Geoffrey Britain,
I suspect that the seeds of his America/bad thinking were planted by his mother and that later he sought out people who would reinforce this thinking. His unusual childhood and his color caused him to be noticed by established leftist America haters who gave him creds on his path to power. He probably hated his father for desserting him, but could never face up to this. Instead he gave us his dreams.
He is one sick guy. Has anyone here ever seen any warmth in his eyes when he smiles? It’s always as if he is saying, Aren’t I cool?
Note to NeoNeoCon:
Obama is NOT suffering from a personality disorder.
He is doing exactly what he set out to do.
He will continue to do so until he can no longer.
Calling him a narcissist and trying to analyze the man on that basis is merely a distraction akin to calling the man “incompetent” or asking whether he can learn from his mistakes or wondering why he’d want to sabotage his own presidency. It is, in short, irrelevant. It is a non sequitur. It does not compute. It is not part of the equation.
It is utterly meaningless.
The only question is, how can his quest for America’s destruction be stopped by Congress and/or the Supreme Court.
Oh, my, there is something twisted inside the messiah’s mind. How else does one explain his angry, inflated ego, and the animus he feels for a nation that bent over backwards to enable him to enter the oval office when his resume would not qualify him to manage a Dairy Queen?
“Obama has been playing the victim card from the get go.” -Ray
Indeed. That’s modern leftism. It’s the Social justice Warrior, Critical Theory mindset. They constantly play the victim role, all while bullying anyone who disagrees with them. The MSM is steeped in it, political correctness is rooted in it, identity politics is built on it, and it’s what the left banks on to win. It’s all offense, all the time, while finding as many ways as possible to take offense to fuel the fire.
Not enough people call them on their lies and manipulations and punch back.
Tangentially, this is why the “Gamergate” thing is important. Finally, someone is letting the SJW nuts know that their shenanigans aren’t welcome.
Great post, Neo. Peggy is no babe in arms and the romantic and denialist in her on its own could get to be a little frustrating for anyone expecting clarity based on truth and reality. I think that a possible tactic and “narrative” by Obama and his boyfriends in the tv newsrooms when something is proposed or passed by Congress will be something like “the Republicans are single-minded in their approach to solving problems, when consensus and bi-partisanship is called for”. If this happens, will they, the Republicans, be able to stand up for something or go along, get along?
I agree with Neo that he has a personality disorder that unfortunately is not co-existent with any particular intelligence, industriousness or substantial work or political experience prior to his election. I think his election was the mother of all Affirmative Action stunts; in fact, his college admissions were likely the same; he has been out of his depth for years but given a pass due to the color of his skin and his politics. It’s depressing!!! I wonder if he is aware of this at some deep level or truly does believe his own mythology.
Barry Meislin writes:
First of all, he has a personality disorder, in my opinion. He is not suffering from a personality disorder. We are suffering as a result of it. Nor is his narcissistic personality the main source of America’s suffering. His policies and that of his party are the sources of that.
But why would you think that having a personality disorder is incompatible with your next sentence, “He is doing exactly what he set out to do”? It’s not either/or. He has a personality disorder AND he is doing exactly what he set out to do.
Actually, I’d amend that last phrase to “he is attempting to do exactly what he set out to do.” His execution has not been quite as stellar as planned; not everything has gone his way. For example, I doubt he meant to make the Obamacare rollout an embarrassing fiasco.
But that’s a small point. The larger point is that a personality disorder (narcissistic personality disorder) is not in any way incompatible with doing what a person sets out to do. Why would you assume it would be?
You add:
I completely disagree.
First of all, I am not the least bit distracted from what Obama is actually doing. I’ve written a great deal on the subject. However, I believe that understanding (as neither Peggy Noonan nor many other people seem to understand) that Obama will not change and probably has narcissistic personality disorder can get people to stop focusing on trying to understand him as if he could change or might change or they could talk some sense into him. It actually saves time and effort. Saying he has NPD and will not change is the opposite of “asking whether he can learn from his mistakes or wondering why he’d want to sabotage his own presidency.” It is those things that are a waste of time—and yet people continue to spend a lot of time doing them.
I guess I wasn’t as clear as I should have been.
He may have a personality disorder.
But that is not the reason why he is doing what he is doing (and not doing what he is not doing).
Hence, it is irrelevant (and may even be counter-productive to assert).
He has a deep animus for the US and its capitalist (and oppressive and colonialist) system, as he sees it.
And it must be fundamentally changed.
Fundamentally.
He is NOT going to negotiate with his political enemies, unless by pretending to “negotiate” he expects to confuse those enemies, weaken them, and ultimately destroy them.
(This, by the way, is the Palestinian method of “negotiating”. And the Iranian method. And, one might add, the stalinist—and neo-stalinist method. And what a curious coincidence…)
And so, he is NOT going to do anything that gets in the way of his goal. This means that he is NOT going to tell the truth—if the truth gets in the way.
(For what it’s worth, his goals are his Truth. IOW, “whatever it takes”.)
And he is NOT going to do what is in the country’s best interest—since the country’s traditional values and everything it stands for must be “fundamentally changed”.
And he is NOT going to listen to the “will of the people” (as it were) unless the “will of the people” agrees with him and supports him (in which case it is definitely NOT necessary—i.e., superfluous—to listen to the will of the people).
And he is NOT going to listen to Congress for the same reason (especially political enemies in Congress).
This leaves the Supreme Court, which he has been trying to, variously, influence and ignore. Or subvert. Or impugn.
(This also leaves “reality”, or more accurately, the “concrete wall of reality”, which he has and will continue to deny, ignore, redefine and defy; all of which can be done successfully for a period of time—shorter or longer—but not forever, to paraphrase P.T. Barnum….)
So that all those who hold that it’s the ideology that drives his progressive policies (i.e., policies of destruction) are entirely correct.
And yet, even “ideology” is an abstraction (like “personality disorder”) that obfuscates the true destructiveness—the actual destructiveness—of the revolution that he has always intended for the country he “governs”.
The focus should be on what he does; not on what he says he will do. Equally, the focus should be on the discrepancy between his words and his deeds—the consistent and undeniable discrepancy between his words and his deeds.
And then find a way to stop him.
This is what motivated my comments above. Apologies for the lack of clarity.
File under: “Personality disorder like a fox.”
Barry M:
You are obviously very late to this blog.
If Obama were in a 100 person marching band, he would deduce 99 others were out of step. Not him.
He’s been a dick since Day One and remains so. It’s very late in the game to hope he’ll change.
I gave up on Peggy Noonan some years back. I’ve seen nothing to indicate I should change my mind on her.
It’s not just Obama and his narcissistic personality. Yes he is that, but we also know a couple of other things about him too:
(1) He’s not that smart. No way did the Marvelous Obama Career just happen because he was so smart that he thought it up and pulled it off all on it’s own. There’s a good reason why his SAT and LSAT scores were never released, and that all of his school records are unavailable. Remember: he’s profoundly narcissistic, and we’d have heard about them loudly and often if they were even halfway good or supported the notion that he was brilliant. I’m not saying he’s stupid. I’m just saying he’s not as smart as he’s cracked up to be; and
(2) he’s fundamentally lazy. He doesn’t really work at anything. He’s achieved everything he’s achieved by having the decks cleared for him ahead of time, and then him arriving as the Anointed One. He then proceeds to utter flatulent pronouncements and do exactly what he wants. No stinking negotiating involved.
There’s a lot more to Obama and the whole Obama phenomena than meets the eye. He was packaged and handled by somebody for this role and while in this role. We don’t know the half of it.
2 years to ride out, 2 years people !
And whoever all he’s got with him behind the curtain have most certainly war-gamed this scenario, i.e, Obama’s last 2 years with Congress held by the GOP. They know what they’re going to do. May you live in interesting times.
The question that interests me at this point is to what extent does Obama’s narcissism work hand in glove with his ideology. Doesn’t one enable the other and vice versa? I think that Obama’s success as a narcissist politician is because his supporters WANT to see him the way he conceives himself even in the teeth of the evidence. They IDENTIFY with his self regard and it serves as a commentary of approval on their own poltics.
Imagine, for example, a similar personality in the Republican party: A politician that narcissistic would at least have to be better at concealing it otherwise he would soon annoy conservative Republicans and they’d start counting up the number of “Is” in his speeches quicker than the press would.
But Obamanaughts desperately wanted that “lightworker” myth to be literally true. It put their own ideology beyond criticism.
EW…
He’s looking forward to a Wagnerian ending.
Trumpets…
Drums…
All the rest.
Kind of like the last scene in Hamlet. (1948)
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Anyone who has worked in social services, law enforcement, or the public school system and can and will speak honestly is familiar with his “malady”. Therein lie astonishing levels of denial, self deception and narcissism. But, as others have pointed out, this was no accident. His benefactors knew this would be the outcome, and for that, well, blindfolds and cigarettes ya’ll