As for Obama: I'm not worried at all that Obama will attempt to translate his personality cult into a dictatorship. It's become abundantly clear to something north of 40% of Americans, at least since February, that the New Messiah has feet of clay.

What concerns me much more is that Obama is one of his own true believers. I think he may indeed believe that he can work the same magic on Putin or Kim Jong Il or Ahmadinejad that he's worked on Chris Matthews or Harry Reid. It's that resemblance to Jack Kennedy — not the charisma per se, but the cocky, arrogant self-confidence that comes with it, when the truth is that he's entirely inexperienced — that scares me the most about him. Otherwise, he's no more dangerous than any other committed tax-and-spend liberal Democrat (which is plenty dangerous, but survivable).

And whoever wins, it certainly will be nice once again to have a President who can complete a sentence, find Tunisia on a map, and Google himself. Oh, well, two out of three would at least be a big improvement.

However I don't think Obama is secretly planning to be the next Hitler or anything. I think he is charismatic though and I think he is arrogant-both entirely opinion. But I think Hitler comparisons are over the top.

I think in the end Obama wins and turns into a mediocre president-he won't be able to deliver on 90% of what he promises. He is promising pie in the sky-and nobody can deliver that not even Mr. Charisma.

Al McCogan is dead, therefore all dead people are Al McCogan

Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted.

Further, Silber states, without a shred of evidence to prove his case

an emotion-driven response utterly devoid of coherent ideational content, a response that leads far too many people to be enthusiastically willing to believe virtually anything that Obama might proclaim and to follow him anywhere

If Silber has any evidence of this he should put up or STFU. It's pretty serious stuff and as far as I can tell, it's pure whacked out, crack smoking fantasy on his part.

So, his entire thesis rests on an obvious flaw in logic combined with an unsupportable assertion.

Obama can say whatever nonsense he wants regarding how Americans can't continue to control their own thermostats or eat what that want to anymore, but neither friend nor foe of Obama will go along with it.

Just don't ask me how many Fence Posts make up a Kennedy.

But to talk of comparing him to people like Hitler is over the top silly - its the kind of thing that makes it impossible to take anything else the person writes seriously. Definitely Godwin's Law material.

What is the unit of measure for charisma? Is there some sort of logarithmic scale for it?

I think this is a classic Potter Stewart situation. I don't know that anyone can define, let alone measure, charisma.

Just an anecdote. I'm not trying to draw an analogies of any kind.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had superb oratorical skills and charismatic personalities but neither made crowds swoon to the extent Obama does.

I've never attended the speeches of either in person but my wife (no Clinton fan) attended one of Bill Clinton's speeches in person and came back reporting that he was absolutely rivetingly charismatic.

As charismatic as Obama? I have no idea. What is the unit of measure for charisma? Is there some sort of logarithmic scale for it?