By Ben Cohen
Campaign politics is all about image. The candidates that do well are carefully tutored in how to speak, move, look, and think. They have an array of image consultants, pollsters, speaking coaches, speech
writers, campaign managers and media spinsters whose job it is to convince people that their candidate represents their interests.
Of course, this has nothing to do with what they are actually running for. George Bush was cast as a 'Compassionate Conservative', while the reality was anything other. After a vicious assault on the environment, the working poor, civil liberties and various third world countries, the reality is finally setting in. But Bush still managed to win two elections.
Bill Clinton was essentially a Republican running as a Democrat, but through carefully constructed marketing, he was portrayed as a man of the people, sympathetic to the poor, and there to fight for their rights. By playing the saxophone, Clinton was also marketed to African Americans as being 'One of them' and 'The first Black President' (a term coined by the author Toni Morrison).
When in office, Clinton destroyed welfare, put thousands of poor people onto the streets, tore up workers rights by signing up to NAFTA and passed through huge tax breaks to corporate America. African Americans were further disenfranchised by the economic system Clinton adhered to, yet the enduring image still defies the reality.
Today, his wife is in danger of losing the Democratic Primary, not because of policy, but because of image.
