Image and Leadership

To get elected a politician has to win a popularity contest. That takes a different sort of character, especially in our age of mass media, instant media, and micro media where the blogosphere and Youtube can make a minor incident into an event in less than a day. Image is important to a politician but should it be the only thing they worry about? Why is it all we hear about?

The main stream media love image. Love it over policy. Policy requires thinking, image is emotional. Bush 43 got to be President because he was hand picked, groomed, and anointed, by the energy industry. The image projected was of a successful businessman, and competent Governor. A man who would run the government like a business and was still a regular guy. A guy you could go out and have a beer with. His opponent in 2000 had a different image. That of a boffo, wonkish, dreamer who could not make a joke and had an exaggerated sense of his own accomplishments.

Six years later, a large percentage of the electorate realize that what they got with Bush 43, was a childish, whiney, incompetent, who really did run the government for profit… the profit of the energy business. We also recognize Al Gore as a visionary and long for the competence of the Clinton administration.

Democrats just don’t get image. They don’t. Not in the sense of the larger electorate. They don’t understand that what the electorate wants is a leader. Someone who gets out there and talks about what they really believe and acts upon those beliefs. Politics is the art of the possible. We vast unwashed masses are not so stupid as to believe that a politician will lay out a vision and make it all happen. But we want to know what that vision is.

Bush 43 got into the White House by offering a vision of efficient well run government. It was a lie of course. Obvious to some even back then. But where is the visionary among the Democrats today? Why can’t one of the candidates punch through the image bubble and express their core beliefs in a way we can hear? Why is it that all we hear about is how much money they have raised, or the competition between Hillary and Obama for the black vote or Edwards’ $400 hair cut?

I make no bones about my feeling Richardson, or Gore, would be the best President. That is based on experience not leadership. We are choosing an image. A strong woman, a black man without baggage, a crusader who will fight on in spite of his wife’s illness. Are we really that shallow? Unfortunately yes. US weekly is the highest circulation magazine in the country followed by People. But we are only shallow because of the shallow choices we are offered.

We would pay attention to a leader. To someone like the guy John McCain, would like to be. Up front, here I am, like me or not this is what I believe and how I will act. Unfortunately, the highest money raisers are not leaders. They are ambitious, but not leaders. Leaders capture our imagination. They get us to follow. They create a shared dream. No, what we have is candidates without edges. So carefully manipulated that not a real word comes out of any of them, or their spouses or their staffs. Reading Maureen Dowd today, we find that Obama’s wife has the carefully crafted role of making her husband seem like the regular, real person he is not.

I don’t have any respect for the three most effective at raising money Democrats. I have no trust for the top 2. From my perspective here is what I would need to even consider supporting any of them:

Hillary- Admit that you would use the same style, and core staff, as your husband. Also reassure us as you did in ’92 that we get both of you. Tell me why I should expect my life to get any better if you are President. Prove to me you have not sold out to corporate interests. Convince me I am not supporting another Republican named Clinton.

Obama- Give me some substance. Specifics about what you would do on health care. How would you fix the middle class squeeze. Get us out of Iraq. Not just flowery platitudes about vision. I want specifics. I also want to know who is behind your rapid rise from obscurity. To me you are just another W from a different state, and in a different suit, hand picked, groomed, and anointed, by the energy and agribusiness industry.

Edwards- Cut off your hair. It is a distraction. If you want me to take you seriously show me you care more about your ideas than your image or your appearance. Get a buzz cut and show me you really want to be President for the right reasons. Right now I think it is just ego.

To all-Figure out a way to let me hear your vision. Your plan. Not the message the main stream media want me to hear. Not your image. What you really believe and want to accomplish to make this a better country for us, and a better world for all.