Alright, so earlier today was skimming through the Friday's paper when one article caught my attention. It was about Barack Obama's wife, Michelle Obama speaking at campaign fundraisers. She was not just speaking though, she was giving people a motivational talk.
Michelle has not spent much time in the media light since Obama's election. She does her own work in different health organizations and I do not really know why, but I like her. She seems modest, smart, and a pleasant person.
Barbara Bush does not really have the same appeal. She sort of stands by him and nods at everything but Michelle Obama actually does a lot without receiving attention for it.
My point is that for some reason, one which I want to get to later, I am drawn to someone for their personality without realizing it.
After realizing this, I began to think about how much a candidates personality play into an election. Are they just selling their views? Or are they selling themselves as a total package? Looks, personality, opinion, should they have it all? Are their views really the most determining factors.
Personalities and the Public
An article I round on this topic reads:
"We’ve evolved into a media-driven era of ever-shrinking attention spans and a relentless need to keep ourselves entertained. We enjoy public spectacles, prefer style over substance, and are regularly being bombarded with dueling ideological viewpoints that are too often misrepresented as fact. It stands to reason that with such cultural change comes an alteration in how we evaluate our presidential candidates."
My generation is superficial. I am, we all are. Yeah, I do not really like McCain partially because I do not want a shriveled up old raisin running the country with his old fashioned policies.
Now, put his opinions in a slightly younger, more energetic body, and I am pretty sure my views would be very different.
The article then goes on to say:
"Stuffy individuals like Walter Mondale, Al Gore, and John Kerry all exuded competence and carried impressive credentials, but they lacked the personable nature of their counterparts. Candidates like George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole and John McCain all came across as genuine and thoughtful."
Mitt Romney seems a little bit stiff and flip-floppy, carefully choosing his answers, but overall he really does seem like the "Disciplined Professional". That's even how he was when he was running Bain Capital. He was said to be tough, he got his own lunch, and charged other top executives 20$ for being late to meetings.
Perry seems like a nice southern gentleman with religious ethics.
Ginrich is a historian, a scholar. He seems like he knows what he is talking about, can be clever at times, but does not really seems like a nice guy.
Ron Paul looks sick of life. But he is one of those candidates that if you put him in another younger, energetic, more personable persona, he would really shine I think. He seems very experienced but a little bit worn out.
Herman Cain is rebel. He does not do politics, he is not a politician, and he is going against the norm; from his outlook on the economy to the way he talks, he's just like us, but that might be a bad thing considering Obama has really Godly persona.
And I almost forgot about Huntsman and Bachman, which is my point. They just do not stand out.
http://www.bernardgoldberg.com/just-how-important-is-personality-in-presidential-elections/
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