Comments by "Theodore Shulman" (@ColonelFredPuntridge) on "Richard Nixon Foundation"
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@elimaurer9491 Bill. I don't know about Hillary - I've never heard her do the thing that super-intelligent people have the special ability to do, which is: you name a topic, without warning them in advance, preferably something they have never spoken about before, and ask them to explain the basics of it and they are able to improvise a clear, comprehensive, detailed lecture on the subject which you personally can relate to. David Letterman did this with Bill Clinton, and what followed was a half-hour improvised lecture which connected the topic to many different ordinary experiences familiar to everyone, and was also comprehensive and detailed. Who knew there were analogies to be made between the popularization of saxophone music in England in the 1920s, and 1990s nuclear brinksmanship between USA and North Korea???
Anyway, after sitting dumbfounded and overwhelmed for twenty minutes, Dave said: "We have to take a commercial break. It'll last three minutes, during which time you can try to think of something to say."
UPDATE: That is also how Bill Clinton managed to be so charming to those who met him in person. He could remember so much about you from having met you once, or from having heard others who knew you talk about you, that you felt he was your intimate no matter how determined you were to keep him at arm's length. He was a natural master of the art of selecting personalized gifts, gifts which celebrated your essential you-ness ("you" being the recipient).
The essential core of it (what it all boils down to) is memory, and sincere desire to charm the target. (Memory without sincere desire to charm only produces a creepy effect.) That was also what made Mozart such a great composer: he drew on a database which included every bit of music he had ever heard, perfectly remembered, and he really wanted his audiences to like him.
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