Profiles In Plastic - The selling of a candidate

[Mass]

A little bit distressing, but unfortunately too close to reality, I guess.

http://nationaljournal.com/powers.htm

OFF MESSAGE
Profiles In Plastic

By William Powers, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Feb. 24, 2006

The midterm congressional election may be dominating political headlines, but let's not forget that the 2008 presidential race is also well under way -- in the media. There's been a flood of stories about likely, possible, and if-only presidential candidates.

The quest for presidential character may be a noble project, but it's also quixotic.

Virginia's Mark Warner has been getting extra-special media attention on the Dem side, where a Hillary foil is required for plot purposes. On the GOP front, The New York Times weighed in a few weekends ago with an extremely long, extremely fond Sunday magazine story about Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

What's frustrating about most coverage of would-be presidents is how unoriginal and old-fashioned it is. The school of mid-20th-century political journalist Theodore H. White still predominates, with the candidate as the central character in a grand novelistic journey. What is the cut of the governor's character? Is the senator a good person or a bad person? The reporter endeavors to find out, interviewing siblings, schoolteachers, old pals, and new rivals.

The goal (never spoken, always there) is to find a hero, a giant to adore. Hint: If the word "maverick" appears somewhere in the story, you are in the presence of greatness. The author of the Hagel profile, former Times Executive Editor Joseph Lelyveld, saved everyone a lot of trouble by just asking Hagel if he's maverick. (He is, with certain reservations.)
...
Image-making has become the core business of politics. Yet coverage of the image-makers -- those who do the branding -- has never taken off. When a great example comes along, you savor it and wonder why it's so rare. I think back to "The Guru of Small Things," a piercing New York Times Magazine piece by James Bennet that ran during Hillary Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign and was all about the role played by data-slicing Clinton pollster Mark Penn. There were echoes of that piece in a fine story The New Republic published just last week, "Welcome to Hillaryland" by Ryan Lizza. Essentially a wiring diagram of the emerging Clinton campaign for president, the piece was a reminder that the way to a modern candidate's character is through her crew.

[Island Blue]

1. I think John McCain has legally changed his name to

"Maverick Senator John McCain". At least that seems to be the case if you listen to the media. :crazy:

[karynnj]

2. This is too close to truth - the image sells better than the real

What's strange is that even while writing of the phenonena, the author excludes McCain as "real", when in a sense he is not really the maverick he appears to be.

Also, they mention, the extremely long, extremely fond Hagel piece in the NYT. I remember from the very early 90s or late 80s, an extremely long, extremely fond Bill Clinton NY magazine article - which was the first time I ever read much about him. (I saw him at the Dukakis convention, but really have no memory at all of it.) There was recently even a non-negative Rick Santorum article. The only long Kerry one was shortly before the election by Matt Bai - which had some really serious conversations on the war on terror, but had a very snarky tone at the beginning. It ended up respectful of his intelligence, seriousness, and knowledge, but could not be called fond.

I wonder if it's the same thing that Tay and others have said relative to the MA papers, that the fact that he doesn't pander to them, but speaks the truth to them and challanges them isn't part of it. So, while this author is bemoaning the "plastic", he and his colleagues reward a candidate who comes to them with an already molded plastic "story" - even if it is that they are "real" or a "maverick", but they can't deal with real that makes them see their own compromises in a brighter light.