Trump and Boris, leaders with bluster and swagger

Boris Johnson will win the UK general election today because he has fulfilled the necessary requirements for succeeding as a modern-day political honcho. He talks general not specifics, he blusters well, he appeals to the popularist tendency in the electorate, he offers more than he could ever possibly achieve, he answers tough questions with slogans and makes bogeymen of his opponents. Voila Boris, voila Donald Trump. They have a lot in common. This is the way of political leadership today. And for that reason, Jeremy Corbyn looks old-fashioned and out of date and boring and really had little hope of taking over in Number 10 from the moment he was made leader of the Labour Party in 2015. Well I'm happy with that because I don't want Corbyn in Downing Street. Ever. In the US, Trump will win reelection because he approaches the political game in a way that is totally different from his leading Democratic rivals. The word Trump is now a brand, just as the word Boris is. With impeachment about to be voted on by the House of Representatives and then sent to the Senate for trial, Trump should look cowed, worried, angry and even nervous. But no, he is laughing at the whole process, mocking his Democrat opponents and predicting victory. Never mind all the evidence the Democrats have uncovered of alleged abuse of power and obstruction, Trump looks totally unbowed, as if as president he is above the law. There are two ways of looking at this conduct: either he is supremely confident of the outcome because he has done nothing wrong and has been genuinely maligned by the Democrats, or, even if he has broken every constitutional rule in the book, in his eyes it doesn't matter because he is the president and always knows what's best. If you believe the latter, then Trump is guilty of incredible arrogance and makes him unaccountable, a chief executive with uncontrollable powers. Trump and Boris have both been loose and economical with the truth but the way things are today it doesn't seem to matter as much as it used to. Bernie Sanders has no chance of defeating Trump, nor has Elizabeth Warren. Nor has Michael Bloomberg although his billions will get him closer than most. None of them have the swagger of Donald Trump. No one could accuse Jeremy Corbyn of having swagger. But Boris does. And swagger is a key ingredient it seems for success in politics these days.