The Wall Street Journal reports on "style on the stump," specifically on the fashion choices of some of the Democratic and Republican candidates running for president...
The lack of an incumbent and a field of contenders whose success is pinned on their personal histories and iconic appeal is shaping a race where style will likely matter more than in campaigns past.
In a recent shot at the matinee-idol looks of Republican hopeful Mitt Romney, an official on the campaign of 70-something contender Sen. John McCain asked, "How many good-looking presidents have we had?"
On the stump, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani embodies gravitas with dark suits and power ties. But because he has dressed in drag on a couple of occasions in comedy routines, enemy bloggers routinely reach for photos that show Mr. Giuliani made up as a platinum blonde starlet or a campy showgirl. The photos have become so ubiquitous that Long Island Newsday recently published a story questioning whether they could torpedo Mr. Giuliani's chances with conservative voters.
I'd make a crack about how the story shows the media is more interested in style than substance, but the WSJ does a better job than most major media at actually digging into the issues at stake in national elections. And stylistic choices (or non-choices) of the candidates sometimes play a role in how voters perceive them. Michael Dukakis's choice to don a helmet and ride in a tank played poorly with voters because it was so at odds with his and the Democratic liberal establishment's generally soft-on-defense stance. It looked like what it was - pandering.
Style choices have to be both authentic to the candidate and not easy to lampoon. The now-famous video of John Edwards endlessly primping before a mirror is authentic to the candidate, but easily lampooned and it plays into the image of Edwards as a lightweight "Breck Girl."
The impact of style may be larger than ever this election cycle for the simple reason of the existence of blogs and YouTube, where fashion faux pas will no doubt be endlessly re-published and amplified just as campaign gaffes and past video evidence of issues flip-floppery have been and will be. Just imagine the field day the YouTube crowd would have had with that video of Dukakis in the tank.
Everything is potential fodder for YouTube and the blogosphere. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee - whose campaign staffer should not have slip to the WSJ that he wears a couple of tailored suits he bought while traveling in the Far East - knows that. Huckabee, at a small reception in Nashville a few months ago that I was fortunate to attend, started his talk with a joke that his job that afternoon was avoid "doing something that winds up on YouTube."
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