Today, everyone is speculating how Mass. Senatorial candidate Martha Coakley lost such an important race that was the Democrats to lose. Personally, I was so repulsed by the barrage of the pre-election exceptionally BAD negative anti-Brown ads that I was actually inspired to SEND AN E-MAIL to Coakley's campaign manager -- not once, but TWICE!!! I had already voted, since I was due to be traveling on voting day. But as a PR professional, these ads made me cringe. Coakley couldn't get away with it. I wanted to warn them that, IMHO, these ads played right into the hands of the competition.
One ad in particular made the word "Republican" sound like a disease. This was something that Obama really avoided in his campaign -- his message was all about unification. (This portrayal of Republicans as "the enemy" is something that bothered me most about Hillary's campaign.)
As I predicted, Brown's PR team responded brilliantly by putting his daughters on the air -- as enthusiastic young women, new to politics -- to say how upset they were to see how nasty the mud-slinging of politics could be, especially when the mud was being slung at "our Dad." The sad part is...they were right! If these ads turned ME off, they would certainly turn off any new voters, any of those voters who were on-the-fence, let alone liberal Massachusetts' Republicans who believe that the current administration inherited most of the problems that are plaguing this great country; That Obama was dealt a very bad hand of cards and he and his team are trying their best to figure out how to make lemonade out of lemons.
Hindsight being 20/20, in watching the primaries, my GUT REACTION to all the candidates was that Capuano was the most appealing, likable and charismatic. As with Scott Brown, and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, Capuano proudly showed his local roots with the renowned Boston accent. And, in the debates, and post debates interviews, I found impressive his verbal dexterity, his honesty balanced with political savvy, and his sense of humor about his perhaps sexist inability to "attack a woman, even in politics."
However, as a voter, I was obsessed by a single issue -- tort reform -- a pet peeve of mine. The need for tort reform as an essential part of health care reform was emphasized only by one candidate in the primary...in fact, the only Democrat I've ever heard actively support tort reform. I voted for an issue. Most people vote with their gut. And, according to most studies, elections are tremendously impacted by personal appeal. Call it charisma, sex appeal, or personal warmth, Brown has it, and Coakley doesn't.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: "In his book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell became the latest of numerous political pundits and ordinary voters who suggested that Warren Harding's electoral success was based on his appearance, essentially opining that he "looked like a president." Gladwell argues that peoples' first impression of Harding tended to be so favorable that it gave them a fixed and very high opinion of Harding, which could not be shaken unless his intellectual and other deficiencies became glaring. Gladwell even refers to the flawed process by which people make decisions as 'Warren Harding Error'."
In the primaries, I was focused on the Democrats, assuming -- as did many -- that Mass. would vote Democratic. BUT, I did notice that Brown was a good looking guy (even for a Mass-based Republican ;-)! I guess I wasn't alone. Cosmopolitan Magazine voted him "America's sexiest man" back in 1982, when he was in Law School, and featured him as their nude centerfold! Yes, we might wonder if a woman candidate could get away with posing nude earlier in her career, even as a Law Student (heck, even Miss America couldn't get away with any nude modeling in her past!), and we must mourn the continued double standards of our society. But it is what it is.
So, I'll now return to reading Jenna Jameson's autobiography, which is indeed fascinating, whatever you think of her chosen career. Perhaps she has some good reflections on how American women get into positions of power vs. becoming victims of gender discrimination. Jameson actually has a great comment about the gender debate when it comes to politics (p. 70): "So the truth is that the world would not [necessarily] be better if it were run by a woman, it would be better if it were run by the RIGHT woman." In my opinion, Martha Coakley's negative ads did not help contribute to the image of the "right" woman.
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