The cost of narcissism

We knew, before we elected him, that Barack Obama had never been in charge of anything. The argument was made that his "first-class temperament" somehow trumped his lack of experience and would magically enable him to make sound decisions about critical issues. Its now clear that his temperament is anything but an asset, consisting as it does of thin-skinned narcissism defended by Alinskian instincts.

Read Karl Rove and Jennifer Rubin on how it all may fall apart for the Democrats. From Ms. Rubin:

Nevertheless, anxious supporters and nervous Democrats wonder if Obama can or will moderate both his agenda and his style in order to preserve his own standing and his party’s electoral prospects. One supposes that the Obami read the poll numbers, look at the election returns, and listen to the pleas of moderate and conservative Democrats. Logic and political experience might dictate that a course correction is in order. Wouldn’t they want to slow the backlash and stem the wave of opposition?

Well, perhaps not. One senses that this White House is more immune than most to inconvenient data and criticism, constructive and otherwise. They have fallen into the habit of vilifying and marginalizing their opponents, suggesting that the administration discounts their arguments and ignores the bad news. They may simply not believe that the president and his party are losing the affection and trust of the American people.

Perhaps they subscribe to the myth of Obama exceptionalism as much as he does himself. But our untested president is not all that exceptional.

Matthew Crawford, in his must-read book Shop Class as Soulcraft, writes of the contemporary narcissist who is able to maintain his inflated ego because he has never had to perform up to any real objective standard:

Those who belong to a certain order of society -- people who make big decisions that affect all of us -- don't seem to have much sense of their own fallibility. Being unacquainted with failure, the kind that can't be interpreted away, may have something to do with the lack of caution that business and political leaders often display in the actions they undertake on behalf of other people.

Crawford goes on to quote Charles Murray quoting Lyndon Johnson's press secretary:

"No one should be allowed in the West Wing of the White House who has not suffered a major disapointment in life."

The "gifted student" is at a particular kind of risk of being insulated from reality:

But the praising of gifted students for being smart, by parents and teachers, has a far more pernicious effect, especially when such praise is combined with the grade inflation and soft curriculum that are notorious at elite schools. A student can avoid hard sciences and foreign languages and get a degree without ever having the unambiguous experience of being wrong.

He adds:

There may be something to be said, then, for having the gifted students learn a trade, if only in the summers, so that their egos will be repeatedly crushed before they go on to run the country. (pp. 203-4)

In Obama's case the ego was not crushed. Now our unqualified president is visibly floundering on Afghanistan and the economy. But his attention remains focused on that which he hopes will be the jewel in his crown, the passage of healthcare reform. Obama doesn't yet believe that its unpopularity with the people matters much, but he may eventually discover that he's wrong about that. Karl Rove:

Maybe the Obama inner sanctum realizes that its agenda is unpopular and will cost many Democrats their seats next year but calculates that enough will survive to keep the party in control of Congress. Perhaps they have decided that Mr. Obama's goal of turning America into a European-style social democracy is worth risking a voter revolt.

Many Democrats who will be on the ballot next year may come to a different conclusion. Nationalizing the elections over an unpopular agenda isn't likely to repeat Mr. Bush's feat of picking up congressional seats. It is, however, likely to lead to more Republican congressmen than are there now.

Time will tell whether Obama's ego will ultimately bring him down by blinding him to political realities that it won't allow him to acknowledge.

Most recent posts here.