Appearance of candidates could sway vote

Breeze Perspectives

I do not think that anyone will disagree this year’s election matters. With this in mind, I would like to examine the two primary candidates and their running mates, apart from the political issues that divide them. For this year, unlike some years past, America’s two major parties have yielded candidates who also are characters; characters in the sense that in addition to their diverse political interests, they also demonstrate potent and even eccentric temperaments, personalities and physical attributes that contribute to their appeal and — ultimately — help them win or lose votes.

Just at random, let’s start with Vice President Dick Cheney. In strict terms, he is experienced, but to the general, seeing population of America, he is old. His hair is thinning, he always seems to have his mouth open, he wears fairly big, square-shaped glasses and he is the only one of the candidates who has grandchildren. He claimed to have never met a man he has met several times, but, hey, it’s all a part of the aging process.

By contrast, John Edwards is young and attractive. His sly sense of humor combined with that maddening southern accent — which has proven an asset to certain candidates in the past — renders him a tad more likeable than his republican counterpart. His Bill Clinton-esque charm seems to work in his favor, though, in that it makes Democrats and Republicans alike nostalgic for a time, not too long ago, when the biggest threat to the White House was a loose intern and the only weapon of mass destruction we had to worry about was the one below the president’s belt.

Senator John F. Kerry has been described by analysts as the "fearless warrior." Those photographs of Kerry as a young soldier in the Vietnam War seem to illustrate that obscure concept of honor — not to mention hit a soft spot in women for men in uniform. However, those images of Kerry windsurfing and snowboarding — while possibly appealing to young people — make it hard to take him seriously. And I hate to say it, but that oh-so-politician a smile sometimes makes him look downright sleazy.

Let’s not forget our good old friend and reigning commander-in-chief, President George W. Bush. Bush is a short man with a compressed neck (sometimes not visible to the naked eye) and big ears. The camera was noticeably positioned closer to Bush in the debates to make him look proportional to Kerry, but couldn’t they have just given him a few phone books to stand on?

So where does all of this leave us? What can we conclude by highlighting these things that some might say don’t even matter?

These attributes of the candidates that don’t have anything at all to do with the issues affecting America will sway votes because they contribute in developing characters. Some of these things provide a glimpse of the candidates’ true personalities which they so often try to conceal or obscure with promises and plans and politics. Regardless of the outcome on Nov. 2, the candidates — or characters — sure have made it an interesting election year.

Vanessa Elmer is a junior english major.