It’s not a beauty contest

June 1, 2007

Media Matters noted yesterday that Bill O’Reilly had some rather superficial thoughts on the presidential race this week.

On the May 30 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly said: “[Y]ou can’t get more presidential-looking than [former Massachusetts Gov.] Mitt Romney [R].” O’Reilly continued: “[I]f you were to make up a guy, this would be the guy, you know, that looks presidential. He’s got the jaw going on, the little gray thing in there.” O’Reilly concluded that Romney’s “presidential” looks bode well for his electoral prospects, saying, “I think that means a lot in America.”

Now, this is obviously a rather silly comment to make, but it occurred to me that we’ve been hearing quite a bit lately about the candidates’ appearance.

* Rep. Zack Wamp (R-Tenn.) said Fred Thompson is qualified for the presidency in part because he’s tall: “We need a president of the United States after the 2008 election who will rise above the partisan challenges … That person is 6 foot 6. He has a commanding voice. He has a commanding presence. He makes people feel secure. He makes us feel confident.”

* NewsMax praised Romney’s appearance: “First, he has sensational good looks. People magazine named him one of the 50 most beautiful people in America. Standing 6 feet, 2 inches tall, Romney has jet-black hair, graying naturally at the temples. Women — who will play a critical role in this coming election — have a word for him: hot.”

* Newsmax also praised his Ann Romney’s appearance: “Ann is warm and very natural. She has the look of an outdoors woman bred to be an equestrian, which she is — good carriage, rosy complexion, square jaw, and blond mane. When she is not flashing her truly unbelievable smile, she may lower her eyes demurely. But Ann Romney is not demure — she may be modest, but she isn’t meek. She is unpretentious, but she isn’t shy. She lowers her eyes, thinking, and then looks up directly at her interviewer and dazzles him with that smile.”

* Chris Matthews is worried about whether Al Gore had plastic surgery: “Do you think, uh, do you think, Jill, he’s had cosmetic surgery around the eyes, below the eyes? What do you think? … You don’t want to talk about that one? Everybody’s so afraid of that one, but I think there’s some work been done. It looks pretty good actually.”

* Dennis Kuninich’s wife’s appearance is drawing scrutiny: “Whatever might be said about her husband’s politics, Mrs. Dennis Kucinich has exquisitely crunchy tastes in clothes-shopping: she buys a lot at resale shops and thrift stores. I’m never prouder of my wife than when she brings out Baby Nora in some gorgeous piece of clothing, and I think, ‘Oh gawd, how much did that set me back?’ — and Julie says, ‘Got that for 50 cents at the Salvation Army — isn’t it beautiful?'”

* Barack Obama’s ears have drawn Rush Limbaugh’s attention: “[I]f the guy’s sensitive about his big ears, we need to give him a new name, like Dumbo. But that doesn’t quite get it. How about Barack Obama Hussein Odumbo.”

* John Edwards’ appearance has drawn more scrutiny than almost any other aspect of his campaign.

* And don’t even get me started on the media’s interest in Hillary Clinton’s choice of clothes.

Obviously, some degree of superficiality is expected in any presidential campaign, but doesn’t all of this seem a little excessive?

what do you expect from a bunch of republicans. us libruls talk about policy. they talk about good looks.

  • it’s just an old legal tactic, modified: when the law and the facts are on your side, argue the law and the facts. When they aren’t, argue that the law and the facts don’t matter.

  • Except for the bizarre Gore comment and the indescipherable Kucinich comment (crunchy???), I can’t help but notice how one-sided the comments are.

    That said, Romney is one of the 50 most beatiful people? Ewwww!

  • That’s why it was a thrill to read Eugene Robinson’s column today in the Wash Post – excellent job of laying out the reasons we should leave the frivolity out of the presidential race. The best line the is dead-on snark about Darwin.

  • Notice how these superficialities, which would normally be unimportant in selecting who our next president would be, are extremely important to these “journalists” rather than substance? I would have flunked these so-called journalists from their journalism classes for their lack of objectivity if I had been their professor.

  • Wait til Chris Matthews finds out that Mrs. Kucinich’s tongue is pierced and set with a little gold barbell stud….

  • It’s really no worse than thinking a “good looking” son of a respected person who “talks like a regular guy” is qualified to be president even though he can’t speak intelligently without a teleprompter. (if then)

    Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter if the president is a dumbass, as long as he looks good and talks real tough. Hell, every dumbass knows they would make a great president, right? So why can’t he be president?

    The assault on reason continues.

  • Haven’t you noticed that conservatives like Drudge and Fox are completely and totally obsessed with sex?

  • Mitt Romney is the biggest phony in the Republican pack. And coming from that bunch, that is saying a lot.

  • Of course if it’s Republican it’s all about looks. Everything about Republicanism is about appearances.

    Their candidates don’t need to act the part, just look the part. Their foreign policy is all about whether the US looks weak or not. O’Reilly summed up what they want their part to look like the other day: wealthy, white Christians. The Republican president thinks presidenting is, as Stephen Colbert so eloquently said, all about the best staged photo ops in the world. Their fiscal policy is only about cutting taxes because they are scared of how properly running this nation would look to the voters. While they torture they instead prefer to call it enahnced interrogation techniques because torture looks bad in the newspapers.

    There is nothing of substance to today’s Republican party. Vanity, thy name is Republican

  • Isn’t also striking how all the media coverage is positive about the Republicans’ appearance and negative about the Democrats’?

    They are setting up the Republican nominee to be the media darling that Bush has been since 2000.

  • Let’s cut the crap and get gown to it White-Male-Christian-Power-Structure style. The candidate with the largest package wins. That way when the POTUS is in the locker room changing for intense negotiations all the oteh world leaders will see the Presidential Hedgehog and capitulate immedately to our demands.

    This is really the bottom line.

    Ron Jeremy, you could be a contender!

  • Joseph Stalin could be the leading candidate for the Republicancer party. Tall and good hair, that seems to be the only requirements. He could have a total vacuum between the ears such as our present Dear Leader and it wouldn’t matter.

  • neil wilson wrote: Haven’t you noticed that conservatives like Drudge and Fox are completely and totally obsessed with sex?

    First of all, I for one am THRILLED that we actually agree on something for once.

    Second, they are obsessed with it because as far as I can tell, the right-wingers are repressed when it comes to sex. They probably have far more deviant tendancies than your average person.

  • Have dipshits like Chris Mathews and Rush looked in the mirror?

    I thought politics was supposed to be about the issues not a rehash of “Are You Hot?”

  • Re: #9: not just sex but they’re also obsessed with themes of domination and humiliation. It governs their foreign policy and it seems to govern their worldview when it comes to a lot of other smaller-scale stuff too. The scene in Animal House that compares the initiation rites of Delta house and Omega house comes to mind. The Omegas, who are white-Christian-male-power-structure to the core, initiate their pledges by smacking them in the asses in a painful and humiliating ceremony, while the Deltas (I think) just get drunk.

  • In 1987, some chippy at college said she didn’t like Michael Dukakis cuz his eyebrows were bushy.

    Just because the media’s fixation on looks is inappropriate, superficial, and thoroughly detrimental to the health of our nation doesn’t mean it’s incorrect. They’re just givin’ da peeples what dey want.

  • If, for example, I thought Rudy Giuliani were a man of principle and ethics, and had views simliar to mine, I would probably find that lisp-y speech impediment he has endearing. Likewise, if I were a loyal Bushie, I would probably not mind Bush’s fake Texas twang, his insistence on “in-other-words”-ing concepts that are already understandable and his Beavis-and-Butthead laugh.

    But, in both cases, I don’t, and therefore, all of those things they do are just grating.

  • The very conservativelady down the hall comes over sometimes and punishes me for my leftist views. She makes me perform all kinds of perverse acts and then she uses and discards me ~ until next time.

  • Reminds me of when Warren G. Hard-on ran. That was one of his campaign pr’s big selling points: he looked the part. I don’t know if it was Mencken, but someone dubbed him “the candidate from Central Casting.” Warren G. worked out real well, so what’s to worry… ? 😉

  • It’s the media, period.
    I saw a story about Kucinich the other day. What was the majority of the article about? His hot wife who is helping him on the campaign trail.
    I’d bet that Kevin Fedrerline would draw a percentage of voters in our current political atmosphere.
    I’m glad it’s Friday. Thinking about this makes me want a few drinks.

  • … an outdoors woman bred to be an equestrian, which she is — good carriage, rosy complexion, square jaw, and blond mane. When she is not flashing her truly unbelievable smile, she may lower her eyes demurely. But Ann Romney is not demure — she may be modest, but she isn’t meek. She is unpretentious, but she isn’t shy. She lowers her eyes, thinking, and then looks up directly at her interviewer and dazzles him with that smile.”

    Shouldn’t that last bit read:

    She lowers her eyes, thinking, and then looks up directly at her interviewer and dazzles him with a nuzzle from her muzzle.”

    Like the name says:

  • I personally don’t care if our next Prez is a Lovecraftian hobgoblin who could shatter mirrors and camera lenses as long as he has a n IQ greater than his age and a moral compass that doesn’t spin around like a UFO just flew over the White House. And I really couldn’t care less if his wife looks like a Playboy bunny or not – as long as she also possesses functioning neurons. Anything’s better than the Stepford wife fembot stashed in Bush’s closet.

    BTW, that bit about the wife reads like the beginning of a Penthouse Forum story. Absolutely moronic sexist bullshit. I’m surprised they didn’t mention her bra size while they were at it.

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