by Ben Shapiro
Height: 5. Jackson’s reedy build contrasted sharply with John Quincy Adams’s short tubbiness. Cartoons of the time capitalized on the contrast.
Hair: 5. Jackson’s wiry, wild shock of hair was as iconic in its time as Lincoln’s beard was during the Civil War. It reinforced his wilderness image—and again, contrasted sharply with Quincy Adams’s baldness.
Beer Buddy: 4. Jackson wasn’t the typical beer buddy. He wasn’t the type of fellow you’d want to hang out with on a regular basis, unless you were a loyal lackey—you might say the wrong thing and end up on the wrong side of a duel. He was, however, the type of fellow you’d want on your side in a bar fight. John Derbyshire of National Review said that if we made a list of presidential SOBs, Old Hickory would top the list.9 Nonetheless, Jackson had the common touch—for the first time in presidential history, a “commoner” occupied the White House.
Military: 5. As the greatest American military hero since Washington, Jackson’s only hardship was deflecting accusations that he had pursued his foes too vigorously and treated his troops too brutally.
Spouse: -2. Jackson was one of the few early presidential candidates for whom his wife was an issue. Jackson’s mishandling of his marriage led to charges that his wife was an adulteress and bigamist.
FINAL SCORE: 73%
Jackson’s age had no impact on the 1828 election—J. Q. Adams was precisely the same age.
ADJUSTED SCORE: 60%
Jackson was one of the rare early politicians who would succeed now. Populist, hardy, heroic, Jackson could appeal to the masses. His beer buddy rating would likely be lower than it was at the time, since he wasn’t Mr. Friendly (3). His marital woes would follow him (-3). He would have to tone down the hair (4). His military record would come under fire for excessive savagery (4). Even at sixty-one, Jackson was still chock full of piss and vinegar. He would remain a formidable electoral foe today.
7. FRANKLIN PIERCE, 1852
Yes, Franklin Pierce. Pierce was easily the most handsome man to occupy the White House. “Pierce was a nincompoop,” proclaimed Harry Truman. “He’s got the best picture in the White House . . . but being president involves a little bit more than just winning a beauty contest, and he was another one that was a complete fizzle . . . Pierce didn’t know what was going on, and even if he had, he wouldn’t have known what to do about it.”10 Pierce may have been a nincompoop, but he was a particularly effective image politician.
Suits vs. Boots: 2. Pierce was born in a log cabin, but he received a classical education and became a lawyer. His supporters focused on his humble beginnings. Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of Pierce’s best friends, penned a campaign biography: “In 1785, being employed as agent to explore a tract of wild land, [General Benjamin Pierce] purchased a lot of fifty acres in what is now the town of Hillsborough. In the spring of the succeeding year, he built himself a log hut, and began the clearing and cultivation of his tract . . . In 1789, he married Anna Kendrick, with whom he lived about half a century, and who bore him eight children, of whom Franklin was the sixth.”11 Pierce’s own refusal to embrace sectional loyalties (Pierce was a pro-slavery candidate from New Hampshire) contributed to his image as a man of the land rather than a northern city boy.
Height: 1. Pierce stood a compact five-feet-ten-inches; his proportionality and good looks compared favorably with Winfield Scott’s aged enormity (six-feet-five-inches).
Age: 3. At forty-seven, Pierce seemed hearty and healthy; Scott, at sixty-six, did not.
Hair: 5. Pierce had fantastic hair before fantastic hair was fashionable. His thick, curly black hair hung down loosely over the left side of his forehead, giving him a studied, disheveled appearance. He had a few gray hairs at the temples, adding a distinguished touch.
Beer Buddy: 5. Nobody seemed to dislike Pierce personally. Pierce, said biographer James Rawley, was “a boon barroom companion, possessing both personal magnetism and a desire to please others.”12
Military: 4. Brigadier General Pierce became a Mexican War hero, despite fainting spells brought on by wounds incurred in battle. Though his military record did not come close to matching that of his opponent and former superior officer, Pierce was able to capitalize on his military service.
FINAL SCORE: 67%
Pierce’s wife, Jane, did not contribute to the campaign. In fact, Jane opposed Pierce’s run for the presidency.
ADJUSTED SCORE: 68.5%
As Warren G. Harding’s image did, Pierce’s image profile largely stands the test of time. Pierce’s military record came under heavy scrutiny in 1852—nothing would change today. Today’s political climate would heighten Pierce’s appeal; his wife, Jane, would receive tremendous sympathy for the tragic death of their son, Benny, during the campaign (4).
8: FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, 1944
After twelve years as president of the United States, FDR was an American institution. His victory in the 1944 election was a foregone conclusion. Upbeat, brilliant, warm, FDR was the first man to take full advantage of mass media—his use of radio revolutionized the art of politics.
Height: 4. FDR’s height worked to his advantage in 1944.When he stood, FDR was six-feet-two-inches; his opponent, Republican nominee Thomas Dewey, was five-feet-eight-inches. FDR was a veritable giant; his opponent was “the little man on the wedding cake.” The media helped FDR minimize the political effects of his polio.
Age: -1. FDR’s doctors reported that the president was healthy. Nonetheless, Dewey charged that FDR was a “tired old man.”13 FDR was reelected, then died five months later.
Hair: 2. The still-well-coiffed FDR looked younger than his health.
Beer Buddy: 5. FDR’s jauntily angled cigarette holder and winning grin helped millions through hard times. It would be difficult to find a more popular beer buddy than FDR.
Military: 4. As Lincoln did, FDR receives points for leading the nation during a time of war.
Spouse: 5. Eleanor Roosevelt remains the prototypical first lady.
FINAL SCORE: 63%
FDR’s suit image didn’t hurt him during the Age of the Bankers.
ADJUSTED SCORE: 43%
FDR’s image would never survive mass media scrutiny today. His polio would not have been buried—it would have become a front-page issue (2). His age would have been connected more strongly with his health (-2). His military leadership would have been attacked, particularly in the aftermath of allegations about the Roosevelt Administration’s failure to prevent the attack on Pearl Harbor (3). Eleanor would have been a far more controversial figure today than she was in 1944. Her suspected lesbianism, far-left political activism, and open power marriage would remind voters more of Hillary Clinton than Lady Bird Johnson (2). FDR would have overcome all of this for two reasons: Dewey was an especially weak image politician, and FDR was already an icon.
9: RONALD REAGAN, 1980
The Great Communicator was a consummate image politician. A former actor, Reagan knew the value and art of image framing—and he used it productively in his campaign against incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Suits vs. Boots: 4. Reagan focused on his midwestern upbringing, his modest roots, his love for the countryside, and his ranch in Santa Monica. He chopped wood, rode horses, and wore a cowboy hat.
Height: 3. Reagan stood six feet one inch; Carter stood five-feet-nine- inches. During the presidential debates, Reagan looked taller than the incumbent; he also stood ramrod straight, demonstrating dignity and pride.
Age: 3. Reagan turned sixty-nine in 1980, making his age a hot-button issue throughout the campaign. Reagan not only defused the issue by emphasizing his age, he turned his age to his advantage by talking about his experience and calling America back to a better way of life. Reagan was, he said, the oldest and the wisest. Americans believed him.
Hair: 4. Reagan’s pitch-black hair reinforced perceptions of youthfulness—this was no gray old man.
Beer Buddy: 4. As FDR did before him, Reagan constantly wore a smile. He reassured Americans that
the best was yet to come. As the campaign wore on, Carter began to look desperate, mean, and petty; Reagan continued to radiate kindness and optimism.
Military: 1. Though Reagan could not serve overseas during World War II because of poor eyesight, he served as a captain in the Army Air Force in Hollywood, making training films for the troops. That experience popped up in his campaign commercials.
Spouse: 2. Nancy Reagan modeled adoration throughout the 1980 campaign, irritating Reagan’s opponents. She helped Reagan project the image of ideal family man.
FINAL SCORE: 60%
ADJUSTED SCORE:
No adjusted score is necessary for such a recent candidate.
10: JOHN F. KENNEDY, 1960
When we think image politics, we think John F. Kennedy. The hair, the smile, the charm—Kennedy was . . . well . . . Kennedy.
Suits vs. Boots: 0. Kennedy hit the precise midpoint between suit and boots. He wasn’t rough-hewn enough to be a boots candidate; he wasn’t stiff enough to be a suit.
Height: 1. Kennedy was six feet, an ideal height; Nixon, however, was five-feet-eleven-inches, so JFK didn’t see much of an advantage here, although he derived an advantage from Nixon favoring his bad knee during the first presidential debate.
Age: 3. Kennedy’s age could have been a problem for him—at forty-three, Kennedy was the youngest presidential candidate since Thomas Dewey in 1944.With his youth and energy, he was able to capture the heart of the nation without losing on the experience issue; Nixon was only four years older than JFK.
Hair: 5. No comment necessary.
Beer Buddy: 4. Kennedy was witty, loved sports ( Jackie broke her ankle shortly after marrying JFK during one of those famous Kennedy touch football games), and knew how to have a good time. Of course, the public didn’t know just how much JFK loved to carouse. If they had, they wouldn’t have approved.
Military: 4. As Teddy Roosevelt did, JFK knew how to market. His heroism in World War II became a national story—a story reprinted again and again at the behest of his powerful father, Joseph.
Spouse: 4. Jackie Kennedy epitomized class and glamour. She campaigned in Spanish for her husband, became a fashion icon, and enchanted Americans from coast to coast.
FINAL SCORE: 60%
ADJUSTED SCORE: 40%
Kennedy’s military experience would have come under scrutiny (3). So would his nightlife and, by extension, his marriage (-2).
What do these scores tell us? They show us how much image matters . . . and how much politics matter. Take, for example, the 1960 election.We have already seen that JFK’s final image score in 1960 was 60 percent. Here is Richard Nixon’s:
RICHARD NIXON, 1960
Suits vs. Boots: 0. Nixon’s humble beginnings cancelled out his suitlike attitude.
Height: -1. Nixon was slightly shorter than JFK, but he looked bad during the first debate.
Age: 1. Nixon was young, but didn’t capture young hearts; he was experienced, but Eisenhower undercut his broader appeal.
Hair: -2. Nixon’s widow’s peak didn’t hide his sweat during the first debate. His slicked-back hair and constant five o’clock shadow didn’t help, either.
Beer Buddy: -4. Nixon seemed shifty and grim. You wouldn’t want him on your bowling team.
Military: 1. Nixon served honorably in the navy.
Spouse: 2. Pat Nixon might have seemed like an ice queen, but she gave Nixon the all-American family image.
FINAL SCORE: -10%
So JFK had an image advantage of 70 percent.Why was 1960 such a narrow election? It was narrow because Nixon had the power of a popular incumbent president, Nixon had a terrific grasp of the issues, and Nixon was a tremendously energetic campaigner. If we take image out of the picture, Nixon clearly should have won the 1960 election over an inexperienced senator from Massachusetts who routinely missed committee meetings. The simple fact is that if Kennedy had been bald, he never would have been president.
Let’s look at another close election: the election of 2000. Here are George W. Bush’s image ratings vs. Al Gore’s image ratings:
Bush Gore
Suits vs. Boots 4 1
Height 1 1
Age 2 2
Hair 2 2
Beer Buddy 4 -3
Military -1 -1
Spouse 2 3
Total 14 5
Final Score 40% 14%
George W. Bush had a 26 percent image advantage, based primarily on the fact that Bush seemed like a genial guy, while Gore seemed stiffer than a two-by-four. Yet we spent a month after the election sorting out the winner. The tightness of the 2000 election testifies largely to the power of incumbency—the Clinton factor.
If Bush hadn’t worn a cowboy hat, he would have lost the election. That’s the power of image.
High image rating differentials, when combined with political advantages, lead to blowouts.We’ve already seen the ten best image candidates. Here, then, are the five worst:
1. HORACE GREELEY, 1872
Imagine a mole. Now add a neck beard, spectacles, and a surly disposition. You have just imagined Horace Greeley.
Suits vs. Boots: -5. Greeley was a lifelong New Englander and a lifelong newspaper man. Enough said.
Hair: -5. Greeley had the worst hair in presidential history. His giant bald pate was surrounded by long wisps of gray hair. Hair sprouted in great tufts from his neck; his face remained clean-shaven. It could have been worse—Greeley could always have braided his nose hair.
Beer Buddy: -5. Surly and temperamental, the grumpy editor went mad and died shortly after the 1872 election.
Military: -5. When Greeley, an original supporter of Lincoln and the Republican Party, received the Democratic nomination in 1872, the insanity began. Waving the bloody shirt—lumping Democrats together with Copperheads and Confederates—was all the rage. The unfortunate Greeley received the brunt of the attack.
FINAL SCORE: -100%
Running Greeley against Grant was about as smart as signing Martha Stewart to quarterback the 1986 Philadelphia Eagles. Both situations were bound to end in roadkill.
2. ADLAI STEVENSON, 1952 AND 1956
Adlai Stevenson was articulate, intelligent . . . and one of the worst presidential candidates in American history. And the Democrats nominated him twice.
Suits vs. Boots: -5. Stevenson was a suit, all the way. Though he attempted to shape his image as “The Man from Libertyville,” he looked about as comfortable out of a suit as most people look in one.
Hair: -5. Stevenson was bald. So was Eisenhower. Eisenhower, however, did not embrace the egghead label. Stevenson did. “Eggheads of the world, unite!” he proclaimed. Not a winning slogan.
Age: 1. Eisenhower’s age was an issue in both 1952 and 1956. Stevenson attempted to exploit it, but Eisenhower was simply too popular.
Beer Buddy: -4. Stevenson wasn’t a bad guy, just a boring one. Going out for beers with Stevenson would have been like going out for beers with your geology professor and discussing sedimentary rock.
Military: -5. Normally Stevenson’s military experience (or lack thereof ) wouldn’t have been an issue. Against Eisenhower, it was. Just as he had with his baldness, Stevenson embraced his civilian status, claiming that it made him more likely to pursue peace than his opponent. Hey, it was worth a shot.
Spouse: -5. Stevenson was the first divorced major party candidate in American history. His ex-wife suggested that he was a closeted homosexual.
FINAL SCORE: -77%
Eisenhower was a strong candidate. Stevenson was about as weak as they come. The result: two consecutive landslides.
3. MICHAEL DUKAKIS, 1988
Dukakis’s opponent, George H. W. Bush, was not an unbeatable candidate. Dukakis just made him seem that way.
Suits vs. Boots: -5. Dukakis was an archetypal Massachusetts liberal. He sealed his suity fate when he calmly told a national television audience that if his wife were raped and murdered, he would still oppose the death penalty.
Height: -5
. Dukakis, five-feet-eight-inches, looked like a shrimp next to the physically imposing six-feet-two-inch vice president.
Age: 1. Bush was sixty-four in 1988; Dukakis turned fifty-five just before the election.
Hair: 3. Dukakis’s hair was quite underrated. He had a thick head of dark hair, nicely combed.
Beer Buddy: -4. Dukakis seemed like a nerdy stiff. As Neal B. Freeman of National Review put it in October 1988, “The nerd vote is a lock . . . [Dukakis] is, it appears, just about what he was in first grade—the smartest little guy in the class—and you find yourself liking him now just about as much as you liked him then.”14
Military: -5. Dukakis foolishly reemphasized his weakness on national defense by staging a photo op riding in a tank. Dukakis looked like a bobblehead; the Bush campaign used the video from the tank photo op in their campaign commercials.
Spouse: 1. Kitty didn’t play a big role in the campaign—which was a net positive for Dukakis, since Kitty was engaged in a frightening battle with alcoholism at the time.
FINAL SCORE: -40%
Dukakis was a rotten candidate; he also had to deal with the legacy of Reagan. Unsurprisingly, Bush won in a walk. Bush’s weakness as a candidate would not be exposed until four years later.
4. HORATIO SEYMOUR, 1868
Horace Greeley with worse hair—seriously—and more political experience.
Suits vs. Boots: -5. A lifelong New Yorker and son of a banker. The human manifestation of a Hugo Boss suit.
Hair: -5. Just awful. Like Greeley, he sported a killer neck beard; his great curly sideburns met beneath his chin. Curly clumps of hair surrounded the top of his shiny dome. Acerbic cartoonist Thomas Nast pilloried Seymour, turning his strange haircut into devil ears.