The Beautiful Candidate

Where have we seen the Sarah Palin look before? Here's one comparison.

Attractiveness is a quality generally found in the political classes. Not always, of course, but more often than in most other lines of work. And while a certain intelligence plus an ability to immediately make a direct connection to another person are probably more important qualities, attractiveness doesn't hurt.

What is highly unusual, however, is for a candidate for office to be actually beautiful. To even the most passing glance of anyone not poisoned by ideology, it is immediately obvious that Sarah Palin possesses classic beauty. The last day's flap over the attempt of her opponent, Barrack Obama, to attach the label of "pig" to Ms. Palin not only fails because it is coarse and rude, it also fails because it is not true. I might also suggest that, inside Obama' mind, he plunged into his gaffe because he knows he does not possess "beauty."

He is, as our politicians go, an attractive enough man. I imagine his supporters might even term him "handsome." He's close enough to it even though the ears and the mole somehow detract from it. At the same time, he takes care to dress and turn himself out well -- almost to the point of vanity. But Obama does not, through no fault of his own, rise to the level of a classic male beauty. Palin, on the other hand, embodies in her face and form, almost all the elements of classic female beauty.

Palin's membership in this pantheon is confirmed by no less an authority on beauty in our culture than Vogue magazine.

The ultimate arbiter at Vogue is, of course, the Prada Devil Editor Anna Wintour. And Wintour, from her first publishing job at Penthouse Magazine, has always been highly selective about what constitutes classic female beauty. You don't get a spread in her magazine if you're a dog, no matter how much lipstick you're packing.

The contemporary nature of Palin's beauty is also underscored for millions every day via television and print media. Simply put, the woman doesn't often take a bad picture. She's not only beautiful, but she has the kind of beauty that the camera loves. This not so secret weapon is, I suspect, what keeps her opponents spinning off center and crashing to the ground in smoldering ruins. Because she's not only classically beautiful, she's naturally so as well. And if there's anything the packaged, focus-grouped, carefully nuanced political set hates, it's a natural.

After all, Americans love a natural even more than they love a winner. And we're only talking about "skin-deep" here.

Posted by Vanderleun at September 10, 2008 4:42 PM