However obfuscation for short moments is possible.
The reason it was so effective in Asia is that everyone was doing it. Even if you’re only effective for brief moments, so is everyone else. One person’s “short moment” of obfuscation isn’t effective, but a hundred peoples’ “short moments” stacked on top of each other equate to complete obfuscation.
Yup, Washington was wildly popular at the time. He easily could have stayed in office indefinitely, as long as nothing horrible happened. But his reasoning was that they had just rebelled against a monarchy, and he didn’t intend to start another one.