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Millions of national dollars poured to fund her last campaign. She goes to parades and events and presents herself as this smiling grandmotherly type. She is a good campaigner...she is calculating....she can be charming, as many good calculating politicians are. It is the charm aspect that appeals to so many people. I can't tell you how many times I have heard someone say, “I voted for that person because they smiled at me or they said something nice to me or they took time to talk to me.” Ideology is trumped for so many people by the appearance of congeniality when they vote. The most ruthless and calculating politicians know this and use this to their advantage. They smile and wave and send a card on a birthday so that their public image is one of sweetness and kindness and it is all image hiding a very different persona.
People evaluate politicians much the same way they evaluate doctors. A good bedside manner is more important than competence. Shirley can be charming when she needs to be....behind closed doors and now more and more in public, her true shrewishness comes out.