[SunkenCiv]

an era in which at least half the population believed any crisis could be defused by one man's supposed rhetorical genius and personal charisma

An apt analogy, to LOTR wonks, would be when Gandalf broke the "spell" of Grima Wormtongue, and later the "spell" of Saruman's compelling voice. IMHO, no one had ever listened to Zero's words before, particularly the partisan media shills. Thanks Nachum.

[grey_whiskers]

Shameless plug *PING* (doesn't count as blog pimping, since the link is right here in FR):

(Vanity) Annotated Tolkien and the Election Cycle

Cheers!