If US politics was a Western, Mr Obama would be the magical preacher, mystically advocating collective action, Mr Trump would be charismatic snake oil salesman, shouting from the side of the wagon, captivating, infuriating and embodying a certain sort of frustration.
But Mr Trump is already much closer than Mr Obama to an American archetype – the boaster -bumptious, self-confident, quick to anger, but with a confidence and optimism in his own abilities, which respect no horizons.
What is attention-grabbing is when the horizons have to buckle and broaden and widen in the face of that force of will.
Mr Trump is the embodiment of the sort of America who shocks Europeans: brash and vulgar and unsophisticated.
Many in the US, particularly on the coasts and in the cities, share that horror.
