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Notes -
I was very good friends with a girl who was a die hard, life-long Democrat. Like, door-to-door campaigning in middle school, joking about how much she'd like to be Bill Clinton's intern in the mid-00s, etc. I went to college with her and she spent her days preparing to be Leslie Knope and tangling with [famous conservative firebrand]. Her first real job in politics was somehow as an intern for a red state Republican senator, and she came back absolutely gushing about him. They had fun chats and he gave her a cute pet name and everything!
I was just flabbergasted. "Senator [recognizable name]? Neocon, evangelical fundamentalist, anti-gay, anti-abortion, Iraq War-supporting Senator [recognizable name]? I'm not mixing him up with some other Senator [recognizable name]?"
And she'd just cheerfully go "Yeah, him! Great guy."
Voice of Saurman is a solid analogy.
Even famously poor charisma politicians like Al Gore will totally eat the ego of an average person, especially if the meeting is accompanied by the accoutrements.
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