Candidate's best tag: A likable kind of guy (Kerry, Mr. Likable?)

Chicago Tribune ^ | April 24, 2004 | Jill Zuckman

[jwalburg]

NEW YORK -- Bored with the political speechmaking in Harlem's Alhambra Ballroom, 6-year-old Iris Kerry Kaler reached out with both arms for her uncle, Sen. John Kerry, to pick her up.

The Massachusetts senator, however, ignored his niece's entreaty, offering Iris only an awkward pat on the stomach despite the array of television cameras poised to record the potentially precious moment. It was a missed opportunity to demonstrate his warmth by holding the little girl in his arms just days before last month's New York primary.

As Kerry runs for president, he is not competing only against President Bush. He's also battling a long-held perception that he is remote, aloof and perhaps even unlikable. It is on that question of likability that elections have been known to turn.

Unlike lesser elective offices, the presidency is highly personal to most Americans. Voters often want to feel a kinship with their president, even a sense of friendship and trust. For four years the president frequently visits their homes by television, unlike most senators, congressmen and governors.

Throughout modern presidential history, candidates such as Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, who conveyed a sense of sunny optimism and warmth, have succeeded at the ballot box. Those who projected a humorless pessimism, such as Bob Dole and Michael Dukakis, have failed.

[jwalburg]

John Marttila,Kerry's longtime political consultant in Boston, believes that by November, voters will have all the information they need to choose between Bush and Kerry, regardless of what each campaign says about the other candidate.

Yep.

[T'wit]

Kick mean unka John in the shin, Kerry.

[Army Air Corps]

I have already had enough of Kerry and his Ice Princess wife.

[pubmom]

Kerry is remote, aloof and unlikeable.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Or a bit higher! ;D

[Hugin]

I still like Dennis Miller's line about Kerry being an Easter Island statue with a power tie.

[Army Air Corps]

Hey, he might award himself another Purple Heart for that!

[NYC GOP Chick]

You know, that's the kind of thing I wish I'd thought of first!

[hole_n_one]

[Army Air Corps]

Oh well. Or as Kerry would say, "c'est la vie."

[jwalburg]

That's it exactly!

[hole_n_one]

Source

[NYC GOP Chick]

You're making me feel very inadequate tonight!

[THX 1138]

Besides being unlikable, the guy's a stuffed shirt.

Would you like to be next to this guy in a bar drinking a beer?

[Army Air Corps]

That one hour time difference really counts!

[Frank_2001]

LOL!

[Army Air Corps]

I like the Freeper name: descriptive, yet pithy.

[NYC GOP Chick]

Nah, that's not it. I'm usually at my best the later it gets -- I suppose I get punchier. I'm just off my game tonight for some reason...

[Army Air Corps]

Have you had the requisite amount of caffeine? Two double espressos can help help one out of the doldrums...

[NYC GOP Chick]

Not too much caffeine -- I have to be up early in the morning!