Over at The New Ledger, Ben Domenech comments on Aaron Blake’s Washington Post’s piece on whether or not Texas Governor Rick Perry is too much like former President George W. Bush to be president. (I am now writing about Domenech’s take on Blake’s take on Perry’s chances — which makes this super meta.)
Both made good points, though, so I will cite each piece. Blake correctly notes the irony of the Bush/Perry comparisons, writing “… Perry and Bush are not — nor have they ever been — particularly close. The two men didn’t get along all that well when Perry was Bush’s deputy and have completely different governing styles and teams of advisers. Perry also comes from much humbler – not to mention Democratic – roots and is decidedly more conservative than Bush. (Perry was a Democrat until 1989, when he switched parties.)”
Blake, of course, is correct, but perception is reality. Few people will get into the weeds enough to know that Perry and Bush despise each other. Most people will quickly surmise that the two guys look, sound, and act alike. Oh yeah, and they both have the same job. And while I doubt the Bush comparisons would hurt Perry during the primary campaign, as Domenech warns, “… the general election could be a far more difficult matter.” This is lamentable, but I must concur Perry would have a legitimate optics issue to overcome.
Regardless, for grownups (who should be concerned with issues like job creation), this is a weird way to select a president. We do not see this much in meritocratic endeavors where objective metrics rule. Nobody said: “Sure, Derek Jeter is a great shortstop, but the American League East just endured 2,000-plus games featuring another big-hitting shortstop who spent his entire career with the same team named Cal Ripken, Jr. … And, by the way, he hasn’t won a World Series since 1983!” That did not happen because a. Ripken and Jeter look nothing alike, b. Even if they did, if Jeter hit above .300, that’s all anyone would care about, c. Cal Ripken’s approval ratings were much higher than Bush’s.
We do, however, see this sort of thing all the time in the music industry and in Hollywood — which is why it’s safe to assume politics is closer to entertainment than any of us would like to admit.
If it was 1993 and your band’s lead singer just happened to look exactly like Kurt Cobain, the odds are your band would not make it big — even if your band was terrific. The only way it would work is if one of the “suits” came in and changed his image.
This is all to say we are essentially “casting” a president. Rick Perry is governor of a huge state which has created more jobs than any other state in the nation — and yet he will probably not be president because he reminds people too much of the last president.
… What if he got a haircut?