What about Putin?
Same thing. Too obvious. The darned man cannot even fool a growing number of his own people, and thus it is inconceivable that he would fool the entire world. Again, the AC will be someone who the world will adore, who will be a savior (at least for a while), and who will bring ALL sides together. He will deceive most people - and to use the limited focal point of US politics, that means deceiving both Left leaning people and Right leaning people. That is NOT an Obama, or a Putin, or an Edrogan. I cannot speculate who it will be, but it is easy to see who it is not. Whomever, or whatever, he/it will be, he/it will be something that gets near universal approval. Probably a simple litmus test would be a person, or entity, that gets major kudos on FR and at the same time gets major kudos on DU. If you see Jim Robinson and Skinner going gaga over a person, then that is a major sign. Silly example, but I hope you see what I am driving at. Obama automatically fails as he is rejected by the Right in the US (and a growing segment of the world is disenchanted with him), while Putin automatically fails as he is rejected by most of the Free world.
Now, when you see someone that (again to use the limited scope of American politics, but for the AC it will have to be global) the Republicans see as the second coming of Reagan, yet at the same time Democrats praise as a 'perfect' amalgamation of Kennedy and Clinton, THEN your spider sense better start a-tingling.