Who has better hair?
Canadians are asking...
Democratic dream team to grab stage at convention
By BETH GORHAM
The Canadian Press
July 18, 2004
WASHINGTON (CP) - On the surface, it's a Democratic dream team, a classic combination of beauty and brains.
Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, far left, and his running mate Sen. John Edwards.
The all-but official presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, has a reputation as a keen intellectual and voracious reader.
His vice-presidential running mate, Senator John Edwards, was once voted People magazine's sexiest politician in America.
Even Teresa Heinz Kerry has remarked on the unmistakable photogenic aspects of her husband's political partner.
"I have to say that John Edwards is very beautiful," she recently told a fund-raising crowd. "And my husband is very smart."
But as the two men get ready to flaunt their union for the cameras at the Democratic convention in Boston next Monday, the larger question is whether they'll complement each other with voters and defeat President George W. Bush this fall.
To be sure, Edwards has mastered the cogent sound bite, adding some punch to Kerry's tendency to ramble about policy.
And the one-term North Carolina senator's small town roots and moderate views may appeal to some voters perhaps bemused by Kerry's blue-blood upbringing and northeastern liberalism.
In picking Edwards, 51, Kerry chose charisma and a proven gift for campaigning over experience and longevity of some others who battled him for the top spot during the Democratic primaries this year.
With his southern charm and an effective stump speech about two Americas, one for the privileged and another for the disadvantaged, Edwards showed appeal in the contests as Kerry's one-time rival.
While pundits don't expect him to make much of a difference in Republican-dominated southern states, the hope is that he can boost Kerry, 60, in key swing states where voters are undecided, particularly in the Midwest.
Some Americans there say they feel left behind in the economic recovery and are disenchanted with the White House.
"I wanted somebody articulate," Kerry has said. "I wanted somebody willing to take on the Bush administration. I wanted somebody with roots in a critical state. I wanted somebody with young kids who knows what families face."
The convention will be a crucial arena for introducing Edwards to voters who still know little about the millionaire trial lawyer whose father was a mill worker.
Surveys have long suggested a close race for the Oval Office on Nov. 2. And the polls didn't bounce much with the news this month that Kerry had chosen Edwards.
The two are looking for bigger inroads after a four-day political extravaganza focused solely on them, particularly among young people, veterans and Internet politicos, before Republicans hold their convention at the end of August in New York.
With the economy rebounding, Bush is still vulnerable on Iraq, where non-stop bloodshed, the prisoner abuse scandal, troubled relations with allies and discredited intelligence about weapons of mass destruction have contributed to a lower approval rating.
Surveys also suggest the country is split on Dick Cheney as vice-president, with more than one-third of voters saying he should be replaced.
Yet the president's hardline approach to the war against terrorism continues to find favour among those who view him as decisive and steady.
Kerry, it seems, still has to convince people that he can keep them safe, not just improve America's image in other countries by paying more respect to traditional alliances.
But enough of substance. In the end, if one poll is given any credence, it could all come down to hair.
Time magazine reports that a recent poll by the Wahl Clipper Corp. suggested Americans prefer George Bush's short hair to Kerry's grey mane, 51 per cent to 30 per cent.
No word yet on whether Edwards's blond locks could make a difference.
? The Canadian Press, 2004
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Ass Redhead
Last edited by LuPeRcALiO; April 12th, 2011 at 09:23 PM.
Kerry also poked fun at himself as well as his running mate for something the two often are teased about.
"We've got better vision, better ideas, real plans. We've got a better sense of what's happening to America and we've got better hair," Kerry said, laughing.
"There goes the bald vote," Teresa Heinz Kerry told her husband
I've (shudder, censorship) deleted a silly post from this topic. Although the topic may lend itself to silliness, I think it is an important aspect of how we choose representatives.
What is disturbing is that, although looks have always played a role in political popularity, we have become openly obsessed with it to the point that it receives major coverage.
Although Mr French did his best, Lincoln was rather ugly, and his voice was quite unlike that of the melodious Jason Robards. FDR was a fat guy in a wheelchair. What about Truman?
As a bit of back-story for this quote:
Rush Limbaugh coined John Edwards 'the Breck girl' and joked about his beauty prior to him being tapped for the VP spot. The link to the silly image prop is here.Quote:
Kerry also poked fun at himself as well as his running mate for something the two often are teased about.
"We've got better vision, better ideas, real plans. We've got a better sense of what's happening to America and we've got better hair," Kerry said, laughing.
There were two reasons the post was deleted, one of which I will explain to you in a PM. Any problems you have with Christian are best handled between the two of you, or you and Edward. Leave me out of it.
Besides, we all know how balanced and non-insulting any images that are ported over from RUSH LIMBAUGH are....
As to your examples (Lincoln, FDR and the like), weren't all the candidates you mentioned in a time before mass media?
We have always gravitated toward the pretty people.
A candidate now has to use their looks as a benefit, or work against them as a liability.
We could have the worlds most capable leader, balancing budgets and creating world peace, but if he were 35 and ugly. Well, we don't go for that.
All of our heroes are handsome from almost day one in the movies and other media. So our President is thought to have to lie in the same vein.
Brighter than you, but not a genious. More money than you, but not rich. Better looking than you, but not a pretty boy.
IOW, BETTER than you but not MUCH better than you.
And by NO means worse than you in anything.
The Sacred Coifs
We'll have to see how the Kerry strategy to dignify (and hopefully disarm) a stupid insulting joke will play out. He set the Hair v. Hair tone...Originally Posted by Ninjahedge
Besides, we all know how balanced and non-insulting any images that are ported over from RUSH LIMBAUGH are....
Re: The Sacred Coifs
Are you saying you don't like Bush's hair?We'll have to see how the Kerry strategy to dignify (and hopefully disarm) a stupid insulting joke will play out. He set the Hair v. Hair tone...Besides, we all know how balanced and non-insulting any images that are ported over from RUSH LIMBAUGH are....
You prefer him to be, well, bald?
If this is such a silly, unimportant issue, why are you the one that is taking the most issue with it?
Just like a BBS thread, the one that gets responded to the most, regardless of what the responses are, is the one the most people end up knowing about.
This whole thing is another attempt to try to discredit the ticket before they have even really started campaigning. The GOP is used to firing the first shot early on any opinions expressed before the campaign, but unfortunately they have very little to go on now.
The Kerry ticket is keeping pretty quiet, for the most part, and is letting Bush's own unpopular decisions do the campaigning for them.
Its kind of sad when an opponent gains support from a constituency when they do nothing. Sad in both ways, really..... Sad that the incumbant is his own worst spokesperson, and that the challanger stands a better chance of winning by doing nothing than by doing what they want.
Right, and what they want is for Kerry to keep turning his campaign into a joke by responding to sniping partisan punditry. The events here on this board today are emblematic of just this phenomenon. There is something to be gained by ignoring immature rhetoric....the challanger stands a better chance of winning by doing nothing than by doing what they want.
I don't care about their hair and I'm sure most here don't either. What I do care about, along the same lines as Zippy stated above, is how the debate is hijacked and trivialized by the political strategists, the pundits, and the mainstream media to become an innane popularity contest.
The truth is both candidates would keep us mired in war, maybe we look to their hair to make some distinction. :?
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