A highly manipulative person is not usually a puppet...but the puppeteer. I think Obama is pulling the strings.
then i am wondering why doesn’t he speak extemporaneously? he is always scripted.
Politicians hire experts in how to manipulate people. They may be experts themselves at the technique of manipulating public opinion.
But that's all at the tactical or operational level. What's going on in the big picture is harder to say. Politicians may be so caught up in managing polls and votes and elections that they don't know themselves.