My reading of history is that the charismatic political/military leader always leads to disaster, while the charismatic religious leader sometimes leads to disaster and sometimes not. Of the former, Hannibal Barca, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, and many lesser lights have brought disaster upon themselves and their countries. Of the religious charismatics only Gautama’s teachings did not lead to centuries of religious warfare. The teachings of Abraham led to Joshua and Canaan and Megidoo and ultimate dispersal by the Romans. The adherents of the teachings of Jesus and Mohammed have been killing each other, off and on, for fourteen hundred years. One could argue that the teachings of Luther led directly to the Thirty Years War, which was a disaster for central Europe, or argue with far less justification that Gandhi was indirectly responsible for millions of dead in the Hindu/Muslim wars between India and Pakistan that followed the partition of India after the departure of the British Raj. The charismatic leader will always be with us, and as certain as night follows day mass killing follows in their shadow. The mass killing following Obama will far surpass any previous killings, with the bleached bones of hundreds of millions littering the burnt black Earth. Iran will have nuclear weapons thanks to Barack Obama, and they will use them on Paris and Rome and Berlin and London and New York and Tel Aviv, and the Umma will be destroyed in turn, all in the name of chaos and the return of the twelfth Imam and the establishment of a world-wide Islamic caliphate. One wonders if the New York Times will notice.

Hydrogen, a molecule
Has not a thought for thee
Deuterium, so goes the rule
And Tritium makes three
Some packaging, a part or two
Assembled with some care
So powerful that but a few
Will lay a country bare
A blinding flash, the night sky lit
Compression, howling wind
And all is gone, as fires knit
The bones of those who’ve sinned
As well the bones of innocents
Whom charismatics doom
Who rule by guile and sharp pretense
The smartest in the room