Does Obama Suffer from Asperger’s Syndrome?

Some months ago a friend of mine proposed the notion that Obama was possessed of some physical and psychological quirks that might indicate the presence of Asperger’s Syndrome (high-functioning autism).
Before going on to discuss this possibility, strong caveats are due: (1) I am not a mental health professional of any kind; (2) Even for a professional, “diagnosis-at-a-distance” is usually a bad practice, and (3) it appears from what little I’ve read that Asperger’s is a difficult diagnosis to make.
What emboldens me to say anything at all is that an article, entitled “A Shrink Asks: What’s Wrong with Obama?” by psychotherapist Robin of Berkeley (American Thinker, June 11, 2010), has gotten considerable attention on the internet. Of course, all sorts of other unqualified people have freely commented on the piece.
The commentators seem to have settled on Asperger’s Syndrome, even though that is only one of the possibilities discussed in Robin’s paper, and that in an almost dismissive manner.
I contacted Robin and pointed out that there were at least a couple of strong Asperger’s symptoms that had not been considered: (1) Obama’s almost legendary clumsiness (His inability to throw a baseball is well documented. He has actually bowled a 37 recently as an adult. His basketball ability pretty much kept him on the bench in his youth, and no video footage of his golf game exists.); (2) Verbal glitches—possibly the reason for the ever-present teleprompters. Without them, he tends to generate long, rambling and disconnected monologues. In my opinion, his famous “corpse-man” mispronunciation has not been adequately explained. In grade school, “corps” is used as an illustration of the non-English manner in which French “borrow-words” might be pronounced. Furthermore, it seems incredible that a person with Obama’s education had not come in contact with such expressions as Marine Corps, corps d’ballet, or Drum and Bugle Corps—among others. Could this be symptomatic of autistic rigidity and inability to generalize into other contexts?
And, finally, there is his infamous inability to relate: Old people should take pain pills instead of expensive medical treatments. He giggles when asked about the economy. He opened a presentation with a shout-out before announcing the Ft. Hood shootings. Then there are his vacations, golfing, partying and fundraising during the oil spill.
A major symptom of Asperger’s Syndrome is the inability to pick up on social cues and to adjust emotionally to a situation.
Contrary to all the Conservative commentators, Obama may well not be narcissistic at all, but simply manifesting a typical feature of autism.
I passed on my thoughts about this to a very liberal friend of mine, who responded by calling me “despicable,” among other things. A couple of days later, I received a stuttering and stammering e-mail from her telling me that she had related my “despicable” notions to a close friend of hers who, in fact, worked with autistic people including those with Asperger’s.
Her opinion was that it was “likely” that Obama had the condition.
Enormous trouble has been taken to erase Obama’s past, so we may never have the information necessary for a reliable diagnosis, just as we lacked information for evaluating him as a choice for president. Is President Obama a Manchurian Candidate of almost demonically clever construction? The perfect leader for destroying the country with no consideration for the people, for their traditions, or for their children?