Pelosi and Schumer: looks count for a lot in politics, but not everything
You’ve probably seen the Twitter memes on the appearance of Pelosi and Schumer last night. They’re pretty brutal. Here’s one:
— neontaster (@neontaster) January 9, 2019
Another:
— Dr. Richard Harambe (@Richard_Harambe) January 9, 2019
And the comments! Most of them centered on the fact that they looked embalmed and spooky. Others talked about more of the specifics—Schumer’s asymmetrical eyes and Pelosi’s botox. Some said that the two looked so bad they made Trump look normal.
The whole thing threatened to overshadow the messages.
So, does this hurt the Democrats? I doubt it. I can’t imagine any Democrat I know changing his or her mind because of this appearance, or become of their appearance. Pelosi and Schumer have become institutions and their thing is power within the Party.
If you look at Pelosi’s political beginnings, you’ll see that not only was she very attractive at the time, but she was a Party player first and foremost in an area of the country where to win the Democratic primary (or in her case, to be appointed a successor) was to win it all automatically:
Pelosi represents one of the safest Democratic districts in the country. Democrats have held the seat since 1949 and Republicans, who currently make up only 13 percent of registered voters in the district, have not made a serious bid for the seat since the early 1960s. She won the seat in her own right in 1988 and has been reelected 16 more times with no substantive opposition, winning by an average of 80 percent of the vote. She has not participated in candidates’ debates since her 1987 race against Harriet Ross. The strongest challenge Pelosi has faced was in 2016 when Preston Picus polled 19.1% and Pelosi won with 80.9%
Nevertheless, Pelosi has botoxed herself into facial rigidity because she knows that she’s on the national stage and she doesn’t want to look like an old woman. Well, I’m not sure what she conjures up except a waxwork figure, but when you look at her you don’t immediately think “78-year-old woman,” which is what she is.
Schumer’s ten years younger, and he had a somewhat tougher political road once he decided to take the Senate route, because he had to appeal to the entire state of New York. But it’s not been all that difficult, particularly in recent years.
Looking good is a funny thing. For example, Mitt Romney is the handsomest pol I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen him close up during the 2012 campaign. Really quite incredible, and amazing for his age seemingly without any surgery or botox. But I don’t think it helped him at all. I think it hurt him, actually, contributing to the impression of a kind of falseness and Dudly-Do-Right perfection that excluded any sense of what most people have to deal with in life. Hard to relate to this guy.
No, the best looks for politics is to be handsome or pretty but not too handsome or pretty. Obama. Bill Clinton. I’m not sure about women, but I think the principle is pretty much the same. And age is a double-edged sword, particularly for women, who need some of it (at least, so far—AOC seems to be bucking that trend) to lend some gravitas, but not so much that it reads “decrepit old lady.”
Newsom of California and Trudeau of Canada are conventionally handsome, but both are egregious examples of progressive idiocy, endlessly spewing leftist bromides, falsehoods and platitudes into the camera.
j e:
Trudeau is a good example of the right amount of handsomeness. I don’t think he would have been elected without it. And although not everyone finds AOC attractive, I think she is, and I think that no one would be talking about her if that weren’t true.
Nancy Pelosi is a rather artificial looking woman. Just looking at her on TV, I would guess her age as late 50s, early 60s. Botox and an occasional nip and tuck can work wonders.
I tried to call her office. The phone was busy. I tried to e-mail her. She doesn’t accept e-mails from people not in her district. This from the Speaker of the House. Her arrogance is unbelievable, but understandable when she comes from such a safe district. A life time position, much like Pat Schroeder (D-CO) had in her day. A good argument for term limits.
Every time I hear Nancy speak, it sounds like something from a disorganized mind – fluttery and spacy. Her message last night was at least somewhat cogent, if duplicitous.
Chuck kept his message short enough that he could remember it. Seeing him speaking on the Senate floor is rather humorous. He seldom looks up from reading his speeches. Doesn’t even attempt to master the material before he delivers it. He comes across as a humorless, nasty person. His persona would make a good template for a villain in a James Bond movie.
Alinsky’s rule 5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” The twitter pictures do a pretty good job.
J.J.:
Speaking of Schumer, I was reading his Wiki entry the other day and read that he’d scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs. Assuming that’s true, that was a very impressive thing back them, before the tests had been recalibrated. It was quite an achievement. I had no idea he had that sort of record; he doesn’t come across as especially brilliant except perhaps in the Machiavellian sense.
And although not everyone finds AOC attractive, I think she is,
She is kind of goofy looking but young.
Trudeau is as much an empty suit as Obama or even more so.
Newsom is a creature of the Getty family which is several generations past J Paul who made their money.
he doesn’t come across as especially brilliant except perhaps in the Machiavellian sense.
He was a pretty good Congressman on banking issues but he flipped about 2008.
Mike K:
By the way, Newsom’s first wife was lawyer and newsperson Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is now dating Donald Trump Jr.
“And although not everyone finds AOC attractive, I think she is, and I think that no one would be talking about her if that weren’t true.”
i find her to be like the woman on Seinfeld who alternatively went from attractive to ugly.
in her dance video she looked sexy like Michelle Rodriguez, other times she looks like a bug-eyed lizard with microcephaly and oversized teeth
She doesn’t accept e-mails from people not in her district.
That is the same for all members of the House of Representatives. Their websites are set up to use an email system called Write Your Representative. I found this explanation on the website of a Republican representative from Alabama:
The Write Your Representative system was designed to improve communications between constituents and their representatives.
–Allows constituents to find their Member of Congress simply by filling in their Zip Code.
–Directs the message to the appropriate representative, allowing each Member of Congress to serve his or her own constituents.
–Reduces the heavy burden placed on the House mail servers by the high volume of emails sent to Congressional offices every day – over 15 million emails per month.
Ann is right; any email going to a house.gov email address is programmed to reach only your own representative.
You could try finding Pelosi’s office number, either in Washington or in her district, and calling there.
Newsom’s first wife was lawyer and newsperson Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is now dating Donald Trump Jr.
And Newsom was boinking his campaign staffer while married to her.
California is probably lost. I lived there 60 years and was involved in state politics for years, sitting on the Medical Association Commission on Legislation for 8 years. We used to work more with Democrats but they are all crazy now. Jerry Brown’s first campaign began in my hospital. Long story but lots of corruption. Also homosexuality.
Not that I care.
Pelosi looks good for 78. Hair color helps, and she’s obviously had a lot of cosmetic surgery or injections. I think she’s showing signs of dementia in unscripted remarks and sometimes in scripted remarks. There’s no hiding that.
Even when Nancy Pelosi was much younger, she didn’t move her face much and she also had that deer-in-the-headlights look that she has now — see this video from 1988 when she first ran for Congress. She starts talking at around the 0.20 point.
Ann: I had many e-mail exchanges with Paul Ryan while he was Speaker. He was willing to stay in touch with people from all districts because he was Speaker. Not Madame Pelosi.
Kate: I have called both her phone numbers and they have been continually busy. Strange that. I had no problem getting through to Cantwell, Murray and Del Bene.
I just saw a video of Pelosi outside the White House after the failed meeting this afternoon. She looks her age — a good 78, but clearly 78. Perhaps her immobility on screen last night was caused by the fear her pancake makeup would crack.
“Mitt Romney is the handsomest pol I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen him close up during the 2012 campaign. Really quite incredible, and amazing for his age seemingly without any surgery or botox.” neo
Genetics aside, anyone who’s ever attended a meeting of Mormons of varied ages can testify to the extraordinary youthfulness of the attendees. Its their abstention from all forms of bodily ‘poisons’… i.e. smoking, drinking, coffee etc.
Which prompts to mind Winston Churchill’s aphorism; “Never trust a man without vices.”
“…because he had to appeal to the entire state of New York.”
No. Chuck and any other candidate only has to appeal to the population of NY state south of Poughkeepsie.
The rest of us don’t matter because the city completely outnumbers us all. I am a native of a shockingly conservative region of a state known to be as liberal as California. And my region is not unique. Far from it. But our population is probably less than the population of a city block in NYC.
Too bad NYC didn’t secede like they were going to in the Civil War. They could be Singapore but without the Communist Mayor.
AOC can look normal. Her wiki photo shows a young, thin, attractive, Hispanic woman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez
But she does look bizarre when she goes all bug-eyed, which is her usual look in conservative media. I wonder how frequent that expression is for her.
Fractal Rabbit:
That is true now but was not as true then. Schumer’s predecessor was D’Amato, a Republican.
Fractal Rabbit:
And D’Amato had been a senator from NY for nearly 20 years.
Geoffrey Britain on January 9, 2019 at 6:00 pm at 6:00 pm said:
…(about Romney)…
Its their abstention from all forms of bodily ‘poisons’… i.e. smoking, drinking, coffee etc….
Which prompts to mind Winston Churchill’s aphorism; “Never trust a man without vices.”
* * *
Some active Mormons do have vices, just not THOSE vices.
How, then, do we interpret Mr. Trump?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/10/01/donald-trump-beer-joke/1488351002/
“…
“I’m not a drinker, I can honestly say I’ve never had a beer in my life,” Trump said in the Rose Garden press briefing. “It’s one of my only good traits.”
Trump joked that if he had been a drinker: “Can you imagine if I had, what a mess I’d be? I’d be the world’s worst.”
…”
One thing a lot of people have commented on about Democrats, and leftists in general, is that they have no sense of humor, especially one of self-deprecation.
Obama tried to tell jokes sometimes; emphasis on “tried.”
AesopFan, above, “…Democrats, and leftists in general,…they have no sense of humor, especially one of self-deprecation.”
A lot of them do seem to be real life examples of the attitude parodied by Mac Davis in his song “Oh Lord, Its Hard to Be Humble”:
“Oh Lord, it’s hard to be humble
when you’re perfect in every way…”
A bit of an aside: in all the photos I’ve seen of those two from that rebuttal event Schumer’s head appears to me to be photoshopped in.
Neo,
You have a point about it being less true. But I think it was still mostly true back then. Senator Pothole might not be the best example for two reasons: one, his being part of the downstate political apparatus And two, his ethnicity in a city with a large Italian ethnicity. An ethnicity that is shrinking within the city, that has less people born in Italy than before and where many of those Italian-Americans have left the city for greener pastures.
If the city didn’t want Senator d’Amato, the city wouldn’t get him and neither would the state.