Good looks in politics.

[Fredrick Lindner]

Something I have know for quite a while and try to tell other people is that the electorate really doesn't know much when it comes to politics.  They often vote on the last minute emotional feeling they have.

 

this is a quote from the following article by Libby Copeland.  " It appears that voters, particularly those who aren’t paying much attention, don’t know much about politics, and don’t have strong partisan affiliations—which is to say, a solid number of Americans—operate like 19^th-century phrenologists, believing on some not-quite-conscious level that that they can read a politician’s character by glancing at things like his eyebrows and jaw line."

 

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/01/mitt_romney_...

 

[Randy B Corporon]

Thank goodness.  This rules me out of a political career.  And, Cathy Mitchell, I think it was perspiration that did Nixon in the first time, and megalomania the second time.

[Cathy Mitchell]

Aren't looks what did Nixon in when he ran against JFK? 

[Steven Haworth]

I have known and always believed that appearance has a great effect on a persons electability.  If you look at some of those in Congress one has to wonder how they got elected.  I know it's judging a book by its cover, but it wasn't until recently that I learned that Congressional candidates are considerably more accessible than I had previously thought.   And the looks of a candidate are easier to get over, when you spend some time with them and get to know their positions and aspirations.  So while a candidate spends time doing small venue appearances, the looks issue diminishes.  That said, I don't think a candidate in a national election, such as the Presidency, has the time or capability to get down in the trenches with enough people in enough small venues to have the same diminishing effect.  So, in large elections, where accessibility is more limited, appearance may have a bigger effect on the voter.  (I'd like to think that this is the information age, where knowledge and information is so readily available, that we could get past the appearance of a candidate, but I cannot get former Presidential Candidate Paul Simon and Orville Redenbacher out of my head.)