It isn’t hard to predict a narcissist’s behavior

On October 22, 2008, I wrote this:

The MSM has been remarkably cavalier about Joe Biden’s bizarre statement regarding the “fact” that America will be attacked six months into a Barack Obama presidency and that people will be shocked and disappointed by Obama’s response (meaning that he’ll either collapse in a sobbing heap, thereby horrifying most Americans, or launch a nuclear missile strike, which will alienate his base).

The sobbing heap is well hidden from public view, but the collapse is obvious:

President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

(See also Hot Air.)

Narcissists have no strong inner sense of self.  Instead, they have just a gaping hole of inadequacy.  They compensate by elevating to staggering levels of importance the way in which others view them.  Other people’s perceptions provide their mirror.  Think about this for a moment:  I bet you know who you are and what you stand for.  If you think you’re a good or smart person, the fact that your wife is 10 pounds overweight or your husband has a stutter is irrelevant to your sense of self.  For a narcissist, the spouse’s “failings” indicate to everyone that the narcissist is a loser.  Remember, he has no inner guide to his own qualities.  Despite (or because of) this internal emptiness, narcissists are obsessed with hierarchy, and with the need to remind themselves, and everyone else, that they are on the top of the heap.  It’s the low self-esteem of the exceptionally arrogant person.

Clinton was a narcissist who filled the emptiness with female adulation.  His little brain was ticking away with “I’m a charming stud.  I’m a charming stud.”

Obama’s little brain says “Everyone can see I’m a genius.  Everyone can see I’m a genius.”  The problem with that definition, of course, is that it’s unanchored to moral beliefs or values or guiding principles or anything else decent and internalized.  It’s a standard measured only by other people’s praise.  The problem with this external measurement, of course, is that if you make a mistake the praise goes away.  Narcissists cannot afford mistakes.  And the best way to avoid a mistake is not to make a decision.  And there you have it.  Obama is being tested, and he cannot afford, because of his own self-image, to make a decision that might be wrong.  So he does nothing at all, while the Taliban burnishes its strength, and our troops die.

I know I miss Bush, but I never thought I’d miss Clinton.  The one had values, and was willing to make decisions, even if they were wrong; and the other, at least, had charm.  All Obama has is a scarily impassive arrogance that may yet be the death of us.