The Candidate...

That's as good a definition as it gets.

Thank you, Paul!

Machiavelli 101, really:



Paul Krugman was speaking very specifically, here, of "one of our two major political parties" (the party Jon Huntsman Jr. referred to as "the anti-science party.")

And his point is well taken:



and



But then again, Democrat or Republican candidates alike (does it even matter anymore?), do we ever know who it is really who's won the presidential election, beyond...



Do you really believe you know who your president is?

They say:



But what end is that?

Who are these people?



Where are they taking the country?

Nobody knows.

There is a word for this:



In this technological age of political consulting, opinion polling, and Machiavellianism on crack, now, more than ever, political and economical obscurantism rules the day.

Not that the pretense of a real political alternation is any more believable on the other side of the Atlantic...



Perception is everything, don't you know?