> What skills does he have that I completely lack?

1. The ability to lie shamelessly.

2. Charisma.

3. Confidence.

The last two (or all three, really) can be combined into ‘salesmanship’, more or less.

IMO it all combines into confidence. Which you can't project so to say if you can not make yourself believe in your own lies for a moment, and charisma is just another name for confidence. Or hutzpah for that matter.

Key point is to not let yourself forget what is that you're doing: manipulating people. Or in other words, don't forget that there is such thing as reality. Many fell into this one trap.

I want to add from my own experience, he doesn't have to be accountable for anything. This post supports it.

Conviction is a good combination of the last two. Or to cover it all

Shameless Conviction.