This would explain a lot

Presidency as Punk'd. [Link]

Sacha Baron Cohen became famous for his rendition of the character "Borat", filming a fake documentary on "behalf" of the government of Kazakhstan. During the creation of the film, Cohen fooled many, including former Congressman Bob Barr and a local news crew.

But his latest stunt goes well beyond that.

"Basically, what I wanted to do was create a practical joke so large and so profound that it wouldn't even seem funny." Cohen told us from his London loft, "It was around 2004 and I remember that lots of American folks were rambling on about that year's Presidential election, so I figured that I could create just a romping good laugh by faking my own election.

"So I went down to the studio and began to draw up a general idea of how we could create a 'fake' President of the United States. We picked an actor named James Stephenson and sent him over to the States to act in a role as 'Barack Obama.'