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The fact that he turned out an extremely solid wartime politician came as a massive surprise to me. At the very least, whoever is in charge of his image is doin

by esyir 4y ago

The fact that he turned out an extremely solid wartime politician came as a massive surprise to me. At the very least, whoever is in charge of his image is doing a phenomenal job.

jrochkind1 4y ago
I mean, actors excel at "image", that's kind of their job? I saw someone make an argument that the rise of celebrity politicians is about television. See also JFK, kind of one of the first "celebrity" politicians in the age of TV -- not that he was an actor first, but still.
- badpun 4y ago
  Yep. America used-to have wheelchair-bound president 100 years ago, for Christ's sake. Now, it would be completely impossible. Presidents have to look good, or at least healthy. Even the senile Joe Biden is actually looking pretty crispy.
  - nradov 4y ago
    Wheelchair users have been elected to Congress in recent times. It's not impossible that one could make it to the Presidency. We just don't have enough data points to draw firm conclusions about how that impacts electability.
  - cafard 4y ago
    FDR (not quite 100 years ago) was wheelchair-bound but very cagey about it. And FDR was hardly fifteen years in the grave before Nixon lost a TV debate to Kennedy by looking pasty. The senile Joe Biden?
    - badpun 4y ago
      He's 79 years old. Senile means, as per the thefreedictionary.com: "of, relating to, or characteristic of old age".
  - BitwiseFool 4y ago
    FDR and his administration went to great lengths to hide the wheelchair. They even made a panel for the resolute desk to hide FDRs lower body when seated. Imaged mattered then as much then as it does now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk
thrown_22 4y ago
The fact that he's a war time president at all is a massive minus. He ran on a platform of letting the Russian minority get more autonomy - the previous government's slogan was literally military, language, faith - and then launched a major operation against the break away regions more or less as soon as he got in power.

by esyir 4y ago

The fact that he turned out an extremely solid wartime politician came as a massive surprise to me. At the very least, whoever is in charge of his image is doing a phenomenal job.

jrochkind1 4y ago

I mean, actors excel at "image", that's kind of their job? I saw someone make an argument that the rise of celebrity politicians is about television. See also JFK, kind of one of the first "celebrity" politicians in the age of TV -- not that he was an actor first, but still.

badpun 4y ago
Yep. America used-to have wheelchair-bound president 100 years ago, for Christ's sake. Now, it would be completely impossible. Presidents have to look good, or at least healthy. Even the senile Joe Biden is actually looking pretty crispy.
- nradov 4y ago
  Wheelchair users have been elected to Congress in recent times. It's not impossible that one could make it to the Presidency. We just don't have enough data points to draw firm conclusions about how that impacts electability.
- cafard 4y ago
  FDR (not quite 100 years ago) was wheelchair-bound but very cagey about it. And FDR was hardly fifteen years in the grave before Nixon lost a TV debate to Kennedy by looking pasty. The senile Joe Biden?
  - badpun 4y ago
    He's 79 years old. Senile means, as per the thefreedictionary.com: "of, relating to, or characteristic of old age".
- BitwiseFool 4y ago
  FDR and his administration went to great lengths to hide the wheelchair. They even made a panel for the resolute desk to hide FDRs lower body when seated. Imaged mattered then as much then as it does now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resolute_desk

thrown_22 4y ago

The fact that he's a war time president at all is a massive minus. He ran on a platform of letting the Russian minority get more autonomy - the previous government's slogan was literally military, language, faith - and then launched a major operation against the break away regions more or less as soon as he got in power.