Even the best-organized plans can be derailed by bad weather or glitches nobody can have foreseen, but whether the incidents or gaffes blow over quickly, or whether they become legendary tipping points has a lot to do with impressions that have already been formed subliminally in the public perception about the leader’s internal authenticity and confidence.

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When leaders have self-confidence — the real kind, that comes from within and glows in the dark, or rather glows in luggage-losing interludes — they can fumble the ball and shrug it off. If Trudeau had fumbled a football, he would have made it seem as though it were the football’s fault for being such a stupid shape. Barack Obama has all kinds of blippy things happen to him — the Rev Wright fiasco would have sunk a less confident man – but he never loses his cool because, say what you will about his leadership, he is supremely confident inside with an unshakeable sense of his greater destiny. That can go a long way to cover up gaffes. Clinton has it. JFK had it.