Posted on 09/16/2003 6:26:47 AM PDT by areafiftyone
People say it shouldn’t be a beauty contest.
Lawmakers such as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) dismiss the subject of presidential looks as merely a frivolous concern of the media, but party nominations and capturing the White House are not merely the stuff of dry debates on the issues.
When you’re a man seeking the presidency, everything about you, including your masculinity, matters.
In the 2000 presidential race, former Vice President Al Gore brought in feminist and image coach Naomi Wolf to work on his style and image. Out went his dark suits and red ties. Wolf dressed Gore in khaki suits in an effort to loosen him up, at least externally, and tried to make him more pleasing to the eyes of female voters.
Keri Rasmussen Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois is the manliest Democrat running for president, joked Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.)
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Short of getting the “Fab Five” from Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” to come over and assess their wardrobe, hairdo, cooking and beauty products, some presidential aspirants do everything in their power to look good. That means regular haircuts, jogging and revamping their images if need be. Others do nothing at all, which can also be problematic.
The issue of masculinity in the Democratic Party is far more nuanced than within the GOP, partly because it’s not necessarily politically advantageous to be manly — at least, not too manly.
“I would actually argue that today’s environment, this sort of macho manliness — shoulders back, square jaw — can be a liability as much as an asset,” said Peter Fenn, a Democratic strategist.
“This is the kind of thing that can be overdone,” he added. “After all, we’re in the era of the sensitive male. [Voters want] someone who can empathize, as used to be said about Bill Clinton, someone who feels your pain, someone other than the stoic, hard-edged, Schwarzenegger-style male.”
Fenn said those touchy-feely candidates appeal to female voters. “Everyone doesn’t have to be the alpha male,” he said. People want someone “decisive and strong … [who] takes on tough fights, but you don’t have to look like Cark Gable to do it.”
Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown, said, however, that masculinity is likely to be a defining characteristic of the 2004 presidential elections. “Manliness matters,” he explained, because national security is going to be uppermost in voters’ minds.
He said he doesn’t think any of the Democratic hopefuls is particularly manly in a physical sense but former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is the manlinest because of his “hard-line, aggressive” stance on the Iraq War.
Who better — or worse — to assess Democratic manliness than red-meat House Republicans, many of whom hunt in their spare time?
Asked who is the manliest of the lot, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) said, “There’s absolutely no question, it’s [Sen.] Hillary Clinton” (D-N.Y.) .
People in Britain used to say the same thing about Margaret Thatcher.
Clinton has ruled herself out in 2004, but Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) also insisted that she is the manliest. He joked that Rep. Dennis Kucinich — a scrappy vegan — comes a close second.
Then Nadler chimed in that former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun (D-Ill.) is the manliest.
Many a true word may be spoken in jest, but it’s not clear whether the truth revealed there is about Clinton and Mosley Braun or about the men who were discussing them.
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) said voters want someone who “is sure of himself in his masculinity. You don’t have to be macho. Sometimes that raises questions, too, if they’re too macho.”
King said he finds Kerry and Lieberman to be the manliest candidates. “I would say Kerry in his appearance but Lieberman with his sense of quiet confidence,” he said.
Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) said the Rev. Al Sharpton is hands down the manliest candidate. “He grew up on the streets. He’s a hustler — literally or figuratively.
Sharpton was taking everyone’s lunch money,” Sweeney said.
Kingston said manliness is a delicate problem for Democrats.
As he put it: “If you’re a man in the Democratic Party, the first thing you do is apologize for being a man,” he said. Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) picture crying on the front page of The Washington Post was “nirvana for a Democrat,” said Kingston.
“It doesn’t get any better than that,” he added. “The Republican would be somebody who could waltz with your mother and at the same time spit chewing tobacco between his teeth when he’s out deer hunting.”
Demodims want somebody who's going to keep the gov't checks flowing, thats all they want.
Gee. Wonder why?
--Boris
Still is!
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