Well done. You've described him well, and it's part of a diagnosable Character or Personality Disorder. DSM-IV describes Narcissism thusly.

A fellow named Bruce Carruth, from of all places Arkansas, describes the etiology as an overcontrolling mother. In my experience with politicians, which isn't extensive but had allowed me access to details of their family life, there has been some common factors.

First, the politician's career has been like having another child in the family, one who gets all the attention. The actions of the children are gauged by how they might seem to others, affect the career. Mom, supposedly a Big Person who is on the side of the child, is on the side of the career. The kid is told what to do, how to do it, and what to think while doing it.

The kid becomes an extension of the career, and his/her needs do not matter. In an effort to differentiate and be their own person rather than an extension of Mom or the career, this common syndrome develops.

To kind of help understand, humor me by reading a little farther. We all have three roles in life. We have roles at work, the most shallow, the easiest to maintain. Next, we are friends, a little deeper emotionally, a little more "real", a little harder to maintain over time.

And last we have core family relationships. We are brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and cousins. Those relationships can be entirely different than the others, and it's extremely difficult to see inside families to know what it's like. Over and over and over we see how peoples public persona doesn't match what goes on in their family. "Mommy Dearest", is an example, and Alec Baldwin's rant at his kid is another. Some people who are very, very good friends have learned to be so because their families were not friendly places. And some people who aren't much interested in friends have had all their needs met at home.

George W. is a classical, unrecovering alcoholic, with an Axis II diagnosis of Narcissism. Just stopping drinking does NOT affect either of these much, it just clips the tops and bottoms off of the range of behaviors.

Unfortunately the power and attention which goes with the presidency has "gone to his head", played right into his diagnosis. He truly believe HE is America.

I knew we were in a lot of trouble when I read an interview he had with a reporter. He interrupted the interview to ask a respectful reporter to whom he was speaking. He would not continue the interview until the reporter addressed him as "Mr. President".

And when he was talking about how he means what he says when he attacked Iraq. It wasn't that America means what is says, that America is determined to act, it was that now the world knows that George W. Bush is a force with which to be reckoned.

You are correct. He truly believes he is right, he has no empathy for others, he does not understand how others think. Narcissistic as all hell.

And he's been marketed well.

Arf