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Do THESE men look Presidential?

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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:08 AM
Original message
Do THESE men look Presidential?
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:12 AM
Response to Original message
1. Was that before
Television was invented? Thought so! As long as people didn't have to look at their faces everyday, guess it must not much have mattered.
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:18 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. Two Images For You:

Lyndon Johnson, elected with 61% of the vote in 1964.


Richard Nixon, elected with 61% of the vote in 1972.

How do you explain them?
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 05:06 AM
Response to Reply #1
21. kick
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Maple Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:18 AM
Response to Original message
3. Well they were suited
to their time.

That image wouldn't work now.
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TLM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:20 AM
Response to Original message
4. Good god....


his teeth look like a stack of wet cigarette butts.
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:56 AM
Response to Reply #4
11. Out of fairness to President Wilson,
he did later have his teeth fixed:
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nothingshocksmeanymore Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:24 AM
Response to Original message
5. I love the way everyone dismisses it as a product of the time
The truth of the matter is we have reached the pinnacle of our pettiness and appearances make more waves than substance.

Thanks El P
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Maple Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:40 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. They were a product of their time
as our air blown Guy Smiley airhead types are a product of ours.
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janx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:41 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. This is true
and unfortunate.
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:47 AM
Response to Reply #5
9. I sometimes think about
which Presidents wouldn't be elected today because of our obsession with looks.

Washington - Well, if he had better false teeth he might do all right.
John Adams - Fat and bald.
Madison - Too short and frail. ("He don't look well, Mabel")
Lincoln - Not a chance. He only looks Presidential now because we've been looking at him for 140+ years.
Cleveland - Fat, balding.
Wilson - Terrible teeth (see above).
FDR - His disability wouldn't "play" on television.
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DFLforever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:42 AM
Response to Original message
8. Yes, I think they do!
Because it's interesting how men who win the presidency begin to assume the role. Does anyone remember how long it took Clinton to appear to be President rather than Governor?

A more interesting comparison might be between Truman, who was president and Dewey, who thought he should be president. And if I
were a better googler I would post their photos.
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:49 AM
Response to Reply #8
10. Truman and Dewey
Edited on Mon Dec-01-03 01:53 AM by elperromagico

Harry S Truman, 33rd President of the United States


Thomas Dewey, Governor of New York, two-time candidate for President

Make your comparisons :)
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Toucano Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 01:57 AM
Response to Reply #10
12. I bought a car from that second guy! LOL. n/t
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DFLforever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:02 AM
Response to Reply #10
13. Thanks for the pictures
worth more than a thousand words! :)
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:07 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. History, of course, makes us biased.
I look at Truman and see a President. I look at Dewey and, like dralston, I see a car dealer. But if Dewey had actually defeated Truman in 1948 (instead of just on the front page of the Chicago Tribune), I would probably look at Dewey and see a President as well.
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DFLforever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:29 AM
Response to Reply #14
19. Exactly, and that is,imo, one of the chief reasons the claim one
or another candidate appears 'presidential' is meaningless..I don't think the people of this country possess any particular or defining image of a president. We might have develped one if the office were largely ceremonial as it is in some countries which also have a separate head of government.
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:41 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. Attractiveness is subjective anyway.
Many who knew Lincoln commented on the warmth and expressiveness of his face, something which no existing photo (except perhaps that cracked-plate negative taken of him near the end of his life) seems to capture. LBJ, who came across as awkward and dull on television, was apparently a very exciting man in person, full of energy. Plenty of people who aren't particularly photogenic or telegenic are very attractive in person.

A picture's worth a thousand words, but the story it tells is usually abridged.
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Ediacara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:09 AM
Response to Original message
15. Ok, I'm sorry but who is that with Wilson?
I'm having a massive brain fart. Is it Cleveland? Taft? Teddy Roosevelt?
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:11 AM
Response to Reply #15
16. Taft. n/t
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Ediacara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:23 AM
Response to Reply #16
17. That's what I thought....
but I was also thinking, "Why are Wilson and Taft smiling together?"
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elperromagico Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 02:25 AM
Response to Reply #17
18. Well, it was taken at the 1913 inauguration.
I think Taft was happy to be getting out of the Presidency. He never wanted to be President, after all, and was far happier serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
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LTR Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-01-03 09:22 AM
Response to Original message
22. Image is everything nowadays
No way would a guy like Grover Cleveland be president now. He was overwieght, and was a terrible public speaker. In fact, he had a secret jaw replacement done (due to cancer) and for at least six months was re-learning how to speak.

I found a web site a while ago with sound files of presidential speech snippets going back to Cleveland. It is widely claimed that that Edison wax cylinder recording was NOT of Cleveland, but of an actor. Check this out:

http://www.lib.msu.edu/vincent/presidents/

Notice that a lot of the earlier 20th century presidents were not really good speakers. Teddy Roosevelt sounded kinda whiny.
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