Yes, that is a mean post caption, but I wanted to capture your attention.  First, I truly believe that Barack Obama is a clinical narcissist.  This is something I’ve been saying for over a year, and more and more people are starting to chime in.  I know narcissists first hand, so I know one when I see when — and he is one.  But an anorexic too?

Well, I don’t know about the anorexia.  Obama has certainly lost a lot of weight.  This is a new one for Americans.  Clinton went the opposite direction, bloating up periodically, while other Presidents, though they aged, retained their figures throughout their White House years.

Weight loss in a person who started out skinny is an interesting thing, since we know it’s not done for aesthetic purposes.  Instead, it usually reflects (a) stress or (b) the person’s warped sense of his or her own body.  To be honest, I doubt that Obama has that warped sense, so he’s not a classic DSM anorexic.

I do think, though, that Obama is reflecting the stress he’s under.  But why is he reacting so extremely?  Let me play amateur psychiatrist:  I think that’s he under more stress than the usual president because this whole thing is an act.  He’s not as smart as his fans think (by a long shot), and he’s totally unprepared in terms of experience for the demands of the job.  Of course, no one can be prepared for the presidency, because it’s a unique role, but one can still be practiced in the motions of being a courageous executive, and therefore able to apply those skills in varying situations.  Obama has no such skills.  He’s swimming as hard as he can, but he’s sinking fast — and he knows it.

This visible failure is a terrible blow to anybody, and especially to a narcissist.  You see, the narcissist has no strong sense of self, but is dependent for his identity on the way in which other people view him.  We are, collectively, his mirror.  Like a vampire, he has no reflection of his own.  He can only see himself through our eyes.  As his approval numbers plummet (with even his first fans growing doubtful), his sense of self collapses too.

In this regard, Obama is entirely different from George Bush, a man who weathered storms of alcoholism and failure — and who came out stronger on the other side, with a very clear sense of self and purpose.  Obama, a chimerical figure in his own mind is literally wasting away.  Without an adulatory public to invest him with a sense of self, he’s vanishing before our very eyes.