I used to be intrigued by the fact that Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich seemed to share the same suit size: two big, beefy press-the-flesh in-your-face-type of guys, each infatuated with the sound of his own voice.
Lately, I’ve given some thought to a threesome: Dick Cheney, Vladimir Putin, Pervez Musharraf. Okay, the thing about the suits doesn’t work, but there are other similarities: wonky, charmless, macho in a dweeb sort of way, not too interested in what anybody else thinks.
Some differences: last I heard, Putin was running 75 percent in the polls (link). And Musharraf appeared on Jon Stewart (here and here). Musharraf was there to hype his book. Stewart served him green tea. David Wallechinsky is not impressed.
A couple of tentative generalizations:
- Putin is the most effective leader.
- Musharraf is the most comfortable with democratic values.
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