Western national (and corporate) leaders are analogous to TV Newsreaders

A recent convention of European Newsreaders

When you read about a summit meeting between the Presidents and other nominal leaders of the Western nations; try thinking of it as a staged meeting of TV Newsreaders. 

For instance; POTUS is, in essence, Newsreader-in-chief for national politics. 

When you vote for a politician, you are choosing who shall be the dominant Newsreader, for the next few years. 

When a President (or CEO) gives a speech about some new strategy or policy, she is operating as a Newsreader. 

A Newsreader is not altogether powerless, because she can inflect the words with (e.g.) sarcasm or enthusiasm, and can interject a few ad libs. 

But whatever the spoken words, her power over events is so very tightly-constrained by her puppet-masters as to be ignorable. If she says anything that interferes with strategy in a significant way; she will be removed. 

And, typically, we don't know their identity. 

What we see, what we are allowed to see and encouraged to regard as primary, is nothing more than the interactions of Newsreaders.   

The European Newsreaders convention enjoying a scripted joke!