Obama - A Petulant Narcissist

As Peggy Noonan put it in October: "A nation in trouble probably wants a fatherly, or motherly, figure at the top. What America has right now is a bright, lost older brother."

Monday night Romney was crisscrossing Ohio, when he spoke about the President and opened up a can of . . . friendliness: "This is a failed presidency," Romney was quoted as saying. "He's a nice guy, but he's in over his head." 

Obama strikes us as a petulant narcissist. But calling someone a "nice guy" is rarely a genuine compliment, and it never is when conjoined by "but." As any man who has ever been rejected by a woman knows, describing someone as "a nice guy, but . . ." is another way of saying he's ineffectual. That is exactly the point Romney is making about Obama.

James Taranto

Wall Street Journal