Barack Obama’s narcissism has frequently been commented upon, but Glenn Reynolds makes an interesting and potentially important observation:
I think Obama’s “charisma” was based on voter narcissism — people excited not just about electing a black President, but about themselves, voting for a black President. Now that’s over, and they’re stuck just with him, and emptied of their own narcissism there’s not much there to fill out the suit.
If that’s right–and I suspect it is–the implications could be considerable. If voter narcissism was satisfied in 2008, there isn’t much reason to turn out in 2010 or even 2012.
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