By any measure, Buttigieg is Trump’s proven superior

He catches on easily to new skills, sounds knowledgeable even with limited information, stays on topic without sounding stilted, impresses small groups on short acquaintance (which is important for fundraising), thinks quickly on his feet and manages to be upbeat even when tired. In conversation, he is not overly warm, but comes across as genuinely attentive and remarkably self-possessed. Buttigieg is far better at running for president in his first try than former vice president Joe Biden is in his third.

There is a certain charisma that comes from preternatural talent. Following the French Revolution, some Frenchmen wanted the restoration of the old Bourbon monarchy — let’s call them the Bidondines. Others wanted a more vigorous application of the revolution through the guillotine — let’s call them Bernobins. But those who eventually supported Napoleon — the Butticidaires — were attracted to a man of destiny. (Let’s forget, for the purposes of my metaphor, the roughly 5 million military and civilian deaths caused by the Napoleonic Wars.)

There is a sense among Buttigieg supporters I talked to in Iowa before the caucuses that they are in on the ground floor of a phenomenon — maybe one less Napoleonic than Obama-like.