Looking Presidential If looking and sounding presidential has been important since the debut of broadcast television, today, with a daily dose of a 100 million youtube clips, a political gaffe lasting half a minute could make or break a candidate (think George Allen’s Makaka moment and the “I voted for the 87 million before I voted against it” from the incomparable John Kerry).

But now that Kerry has shed the presidential hopeful chip off his shoulder, he’s as sharp as ever. This was more than obvious in his recent squaring off with McCain
on Meet the Press last Sunday. McCain was the bumbling John this time around, because he’s not just carrying the presidential chip, he’s been bargaining the Iraq and Immigration ones to boot.



Note that both of Russert’s eloquent contenders were ousted in their quest for the Whitehouse by a man that can barely weave together ten words into a coherent sentence, speechwriters notwithstanding. No articulation matters in the face of unrelenting drag-in-the-mud politics

War on character should be the new mantra of the Republican party.
And who’s better prepared for a baleful battle that than New York-turned-America’s mayor? The media is certainly doing its job, carrying presidential “images” of him all the way from Ground Zero through 10 Downing Street.

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