Word: charisma
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...critics who argue that things would have worked out the same way anyway (e.g., if Hitler had perished in the muddy trenches, some other fanatic would have taken his place. Maybe, but most historians see Hitler as an extremist, even for a Nazi--and one with a lot of charisma to boot). Counterfactualists tend to support the Great Man Theory of history...
...telling the other oligarchs that Chernomyrdin is perfect because he can work with the Communists. They feel safe with him because he's likely to ensure business as usual." That's assuming they can get the public to elect a man who, Quinn-Judge says, shows no discernible charisma, is unable to speak in public and has been publicly humiliated by Yeltsin. But first they have to get the unpredictable President to actually step down when his term ends...
Travolta and Bill Clinton both know about perseverance and the uses of charisma. As the actor spreads his seductiveness on a movie screen like jelly on toast, so does Clinton work a room or a country, avidly selling his policies and himself, in love with being loved--and with his need to be loved. No wonder that when Travolta met Klein, he said, "I've been waiting my whole life to play this role...
...fact Klein was in the thrall of the Clinton charisma; his Jack is a figure that rockets off the page. In the film Stanton is less grand and less sexy, and Travolta plays it subdued, a tad mopish. His smile looks startled, as if he had just sniffed ammonia. He has the hardest job: while everyone else gets to crack wise, he has to make political platitudes sound like poetry and Stanton's skunkish behavior smell almost sweet. His Stanton is a large man unsure whether he's big enough for a job he would kill...
...asked Nichols what he was hoping to say in the film, he told her, "It's secretly Seinfeld. It's about the fun friends have together in what turns out to be the happiest time of their lives." As happy as that canny politician John Travolta, parading his charisma in Hollywood. As happy as that consummate showman Bill Clinton, locking eyes and hands with one more member of the universal audience...