When it comes to personality politics, Leo is giving it socks

So Leo Varadkar took time on his visit to the US to go to a film festival in Texas – bumping into Arnold Schwarzenegger, as you do, and, of course, photos of the twosome featured everywhere.

It was interesting to see the Taoiseach and the Terminator together. One is an image-obsessed egotistical actor who considers himself an A-lister. The other is the former governor of California.

There is something about Leo Varadkar that kind of sets him apart from other politicians, that gives him an exotic, almost presidential allure.

He has been compared him to Dev. He and the ‘Spaniard’ were children of a non-Irish born father and both shared a quality of diffidence and of being ‘natural’ rather than accidental leaders.

And this week of course, he is also meeting Donald Trump in the White House. Of course, that’s a whole different league of self-obsession and ego – Kim Jong-Un is the only other politician in the world who can match him in that department.

There are periods in our form of parliamentary democracy when the personality is bigger than the party – and this is one of those periods.

It happened with Dev, with Charlie Haughey, with Bertie Ahern, and possibly with Garret Fitzgerald. In Britain, you can think, of course, of Winston Churchill, of Margaret Thatcher, and of Tony Blair. Gerry Adams was synonymous with Sinn Féin during his long reign at the top of the party.

You can see it in recent opinion polls. Varadkar has raced way ahead of Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Fine Gael have also got a substantial “Leo boost” in the most recent polls. Whether that can be sustained is another matter.

What is a little strange and hard to explain is that there was time-lag between his elevation to Taoiseach and a boost in the polls. When he became Taoiseach, there was no corresponding spike in support levels for Fine Gael, or his ratings as Taoiseach.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.