He was on television a few weeks ago. An elder American politician in a middle Eastern city. At a podium with a flag hanging symbolically on the wall behind him.
He waved his hands. He talked his talk. He smiled his plastic smile. Stragglers in the street waved flags when the cameras turned to them.
It must be sad to be a politician in the shadow of his years. Devoid of substance. Nothing to say that sheds any fundamental light on anything. Just standing there under the lights before an international press pool manufacturing news for a day just by showing up. A story that no one remembers tomorrow.
There is nothing left but caricature. Politics devoured him.