WSJ's Seib: Bush's Personality Is Deciding Factor For Some Voters

[question everything]

CAPITAL JOURNAL
By GERALD F. SEIB

Write to him at [e-mail]3.

September 22, 2004; Page A4

(snip)

Why DO people vote for George W. Bush anyway? The answer isn't necessarily apparent. He doesn't exactly have a profile that suggests he is presidential timber: mediocre student in his younger days, checkered business history, scanty political résumé for someone in the highest office of the land. He isn't even the smartest guy in his family, or the one with the most obvious political gifts. Most think that nod goes to brother Jeb, governor of Florida.

(snip)

Voters want to like the candidate they are choosing for president, want to be comfortable seeing him or her on their television screen every night, and want to have a feeling that the candidate shares their basic values. In the words of one Bush strategist, a presidential candidate needs to be "approachable." And that's the intangible that explains why many will vote for Mr. Bush despite his blemishes -- and where he has an advantage over John Kerry. To see that, look inside a poll released last week by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

(snip)

Intriguingly, Mr. Luntz, who conducts frequent focus-group discussions with voters to plumb their attitudes, argues that the very personal attributes that attract many voters to Mr. Bush simultaneously turn off many Bush-haters. "His language is accessible, his emotions are there for people to see, you know what he's feeling, there's no fake to him." Mr. Luntz says. "If he's angry he shows it. If he's excited, he shows it." The unvarnished look appeals to voters inclined to think other politicians are too slick and slippery. But those very attributes leave some people feeling they want -- and the country deserves -- something deeper and more sophisticated in a president. "They want a Harvard Ph.D. who sounds like a cross between Alistair Cooke and William F. Buckley and Shakespeare," Mr. Luntz says. That ain't Mr. Bush.

Overall, though, persona appears to be Mr. Bush's hidden strength, and Mr. Kerry's hidden weakness. The Democratic nominee -- smart and well-credentialed -- isn't necessarily somebody voters find they can warm up to easily. The personal dimension also may be growing more important as the campaign enters its final weeks. Voters who are driven by ideological beliefs already are firmly in either the Bush or the Kerry camp. Voters who still haven't made up their minds, almost by definition, aren't driven by ideology. These remaining undecided voters figure to be the most likely to be swayed by the candidates' personal attributes.

This isn't the final reading, of course. Three big events -- the three presidential debates just agreed to by the two campaigns -- remain on the calendar before Nov. 2. Those could change the way voters think about the candidates. More important is whether they change the way voters feel -- an area where Mr. Bush right now has an advantage.

Write to Gerald F. Seib at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109580830826824232,00.html

[madmax]

1. Let them eat personality

:eyes:

[July]

2. HIS LANGUAGE IS ACCESSIBLE?

Bwaaaa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!!!!

[question everything]

5. Sure: "me Tarzan, you Jane"

Same as Limbaugh and Hannity and O"Reily. The lowest common denominator in full view. You don't have to think. What can one expect from the ones who are proud to be called "dittoheads?"

[JuniorPlankton]

3. There are so many idiots

(Not to sound arrogant or condescending):)

[rocktivity]

4. Bush's personality DISORDER has been the deciding factor for me!

:headbang:
rocknation

[rjbny62]

6. irrational loyalty

I sometimes think there are a lot of people in this country who choose a candidate much like they would choose a favorite sports team. For example, here in NY, if you are a Mets fan you hate the Yankees, and you stay loyal to them no matter what. It isn't a logical thing, it is image and branding, the personality of the team. This is the only explanation I have for why * has support even approaching 50% of this country. The trouble is, we aren't talking about sports here, we are talking about control of the most powerful nation in the world and the relationship to the rest of the people on this earth. It is disturbing that many people will vote for president on such a superficial basis, without really looking at the issues closely. This has to be the reason why flat out lies are believed by so many. Perhaps even more disturbing is the fact something like 40% of eligible voters won't vote at all....what apathy.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi rjbny62!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[vogonity]

8. Totally agree

You said exactly what I had tried to say a couple times and it never came out how I wanted it to. So many years of being conditioned with, "Yankees or Mets fan?" "Cowboys or Redskins fan?" makes people want to do the same thing with their political views.

[Catfight]

9. I really don't care why people like the idiot-clown, I care about how

we can energize people to step up to higher aspirations for America and give Kerry a chance!

[Disturbed]

10. Understanding This Election

Understanding This Election


The American people are conditioned to the concept of winning. It's the only thing that matters. It doesn't matter how the winning is done. The Neo Fascists have cleverly fashioned this as a War On Terrorism. Any country can be invaded on that premise now. The winning takes time. It cannot be disputed that America cannot win in Iraq or Afghanistan because it's just a matter of time. If America just stays the course. Vietnam was lost because the politicians and the liberals wouldn't stay the course. They lost their will to win. Kerry/Edwards are painted as weak and not willing to win the War On Terror. Liberals and the Left Wingers are not tough enough to win the War On Terror and their weakness invites more terrorists to attack America.

This is the crux of the debate. That is why the Kerry campaign went with the Kerry was a Hero in war. Unfortunately, the Neo Fascists put a dent into that with the Swiftboat Liars and the eroneous misperceptions of Kerry's votes in Congress. The Neo Fascists play down and dirty and consider any election as warfare where no rules apply. People keep saying that fear and smear shouldn't be used but then also say it is effective. If Dems go on the attack they are attacked for being negative and desperate. Sound bytes and perception win over complexity and facts.

It's War!

[question everything]

11. Well said, thank you. But it also the ideology

For all the born again evangelists, for the ones who think that the government belongs in people's bedrooms and in the doctors' office - for them it is not so much Bush himself but the promise that they see of appointing more Scalias and Thomases to the Supreme Court, of interfering with people's privacy in the name of.... I don't know whose. Even their bible is being interpreted by different people differently.

One thing in common to all of them - they think in terms of absolute, of black and white. There are no shades of grey in their lives; they even see it as weakness... until something happen to them personally, or to someone they know when the absolute answers no longer work.

And I really don't know how we counteract such an attitude and predisposition, I don't think that I want to be part of such a way - if one exists.

[kittynboi]

12. Regular delusions.

A lot of this just has to do with the fact that many people labor under the delusions that bush is a "regular" guy like they are. That he's just as open to having a cookout and watching nascar racing or whatever. It seems that to many americans, its more important for their leader to be like them, than for their leader to be compotent.

[struggle4progress]

13. Hoo wantz a Prezitent hoos 2 smart? Busch don't make me feel dum. eom

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. Clinton said it right

"When people think they vote Democratic."

Those who vote Republican and don't make $200,000+ a year have their minds on cruise control.

[teryang]

15. Bush's mind- Potemkim village for idiots

I once had a professional supervisor tell me I had to dumb down my presentations in court, much like dressing down. He calls it developing personal style.

People are turned off by intelligence, it causes feelings of inadequacy and resentment. The vocabulary that gets you where you are needs to be abandoned when you get there. It's another form of fakery that's purely American.

I have spent a considerable amount of my life doing this. It's critical in the area where I now live which is one of the more economically depressed and poorly educated areas in the state.

If you get out there with the people, it's amazing how ignorant the average American is, yet how committed they are to their twisted and inadequate understanding of the world around them. They barely have the living skills to survive or provide for their offspring with the new social Darwinism. (what's that?) Bush is is their rationalization for who they are.