"American Narcissus"

I think anyone who has been following Obama's career over the last few years knows he has a bit of an ego. It was alluded to about a month ago by Time magazine's editor-at-large Mark Halperin, who gave the following devastating indictment of his administration:

With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle.

Of course, there are many factors that have contributed to the slow-motion train wreck alternately known as the Obama administration. But Weekly Standard reporter Jonathan Last seems to have put his finger on one of the most significant factors in this excellent article called "American Narcissus." Last makes the point that Obama is one of the most astonishingly narcissistic politicians our country has ever seen, and he does in a devastatingly effective manner by using quote after quote from Obama himself and from numerous individuals close to him. On top of this is an opinion article from the Fox News website called "The Trip About Nothing," which details the utter ineffectiveness of Obama's recent trip to Asia. The final sentence contains this modified quote from Winston Churchill: "An empty plane arrived in Asia, and when the door was opened, Mr. Obama got out."