It’s almost enough to evoke sympathy: the entire journalistic world poring over President Obama’s post-election comments and applying a humility meter to his words, his facial expressions, and his mood. Does he get it? Is he sufficiently abashed by the voters’ rebuke?

But just when you think the guy has suffered enough, he short-circuits your pity. Traveling in India, the president misinterpreted the comments of an Indian businessman in a way that reveals his tenacious self-worship. As Jake Tapper reported, Mr. Bhupendra Kansagra, founder of SpiceJet, greeted the president: