This chapter summarizes and develops further a view of the role of metaphor in political communication that has been introduced in some earlier research (Charteris-Black, 2004, 2005, 2007), in particular the idea that metaphors contribute to the design of a leadership style through appealing to followers to share in a particular representation or construal of social reality. Successful and charismatic leaders create metaphors onto which followers project their own meanings and in doing so find a degree of socio-psychological and emotional gratification. I will first outline the classical view of the role of metaphor in rhetorical persuasion and then analyse metaphor uses by two contemporary politicians - Fidel Castro and Tony Blair. This will lead towards a proposal for a view of metaphor in political communication in which myth and ideology are integrated with the classical role of metaphor. (Jonathan Charteris-Black)