“It’s not as if we didn’t see some of this coming,” said Barack Obama, a note of bleak humour in his voice. “I will admit it’s worse than even I expected, but I did warn y’all!”
The crowd at a sports arena in Norfolk, Virginia, half-laughed and half-groaned. “I did,” Obama added. “You can run the tape.”
Now Obama is back on the campaign trail, for Democrats running for governor in New Jersey and Virginia. It gives him a platform to deliver an alternative State of the Union address. And the gloves are off.
To hear the expectant buzz of the 7,000-plus crowd in Norfolk as candidate Abigail Spanberger promised that Obama’s entrance was just moments away was to be reminded that Democrats did once have a president who could match Trump’s superstar charisma.
It’s all in how he communicates, not what. He’s an old-school con man, a confidence trickster. That whole style relies on the fact that people are really bad at judging character, and someone who lies with a straight face and never shows an iota of guilt will be believed to be innocent and truthful no matter what evidence is presented against them.
Combine that with a heavy dose of sunk cost fallacy and an increasingly uneducated and desperate electorate, and it’s easy to see why many follow him despite his near complete lack of articulateness.