Very good indeed. The Mahdi most closely reminds me of Robespierre or St Just not someone like former Chicago Mayor Washington.
Yes, like Robespierre indeed. Unfortunately, there’s little chance at this point that his own rigidity and excessive zeal will cause his allies to turn on him, since they can just wait him out. The real danger for them is if he tries to anoint a puppet succesor, a Medvedev, so that he can continue to rule behind the scenes.
2016 could get interesting, because if he tries that strategy, he is going to step on some toes, and there could be a real brawl in the Democrat primaries.