i think some people have no discernment and run on feelings.
i cannot stand obama.. and on first look i did not like him.. every act and every tv appearance i knew him to be exactly who he is. the crease in his pants had no sway.
and yes, they vote.
So you may be right that the person who disliked RBG's appearance was having the same sensation, but didn't know how to express it in political terms.
I have had that experience of "intuiting" something about a person from a photo a handful of times over my lifetime. One was a photo of Bill Clinton as a 16-year-old high school student meeting JFK -- this must have been back in the early 60s, probably in the DC newspapers, long before Clinton entered the national arena. I thought he was entirely ordinary-looking, but somehow he still he stood out, and I felt a negative vibe.
With regard to Obama, the first photo I recall seeing was of him and Michelle in 1996 on election night when they won his Senate seat in Illinois—I didn't react to him, but rather recoiled from her, and the trashy, vengeful expression on her face, even in victory.