They don't call it a popular election for nothing
By Beth Teitell
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
The endless reports about John Kerry's ``likability problem'' are starting to make me cringe.
True, the Democratic nominee, U.S. senator - and multi-millionaire - is hardly a person to be pitied, and yet it must be kind of awkward to have the whole country obsessed with your shortcomings.
(Worse, even, than the national plea for a better hairdo.)
While many of us worry that we're unpopular - Why am I alone with my kid in the sandbox while the other mothers are all chatting near the slide? Why didn't anyone ask me to go down to the caf for lunch? - at least we don't have it confirmed for us by CNN polls.
Who knew we had it so good?
And yet, there is something enviable about getting word that you have a likability problem, so you can take action to fix it, as Kerry is. In his own Kerry-ish way.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that in an attempt to boost his Q Rating, Kerry's signing more autographs, shaking more hands, making better eye contact.
``You go, sir,'' I thought as I read about his efforts.
But then questions began to nag. Do I really want a president who has to make a concentrated effort to be likable? What if by election day he gets so good at faking it that he wins, but deep down, he's not likable at all?
Perhaps it's time to appoint a 9/11-style commission. Make him put his hand on a stack of Dale Carnegie's ``How to Win Friends and Influence People'' and swear under oath that he didn't ignore advance warnings that he had to have a personality.
Here's something else we need to know: Is likability inborn? Or can it be learned? Is it like sincerity? Because as Daniel Schorr said, ``If you can fake that, you've got it made.''
If that's true, then perhaps all that stands between Kerry and the leadership of the free world is a backslap.
And many of Kerry's friends insist he is likable. So perhaps the answer is that he suffers from the same problem Peter O'Toole did in ``Lawrence of Arabia.'' ``My manner, sir,' Lawrence told General Murray. ``It looks insubordinate but it really isn't.''
On the other hand, maybe likablity is overrated. Let's not forget that it was Kerry the Unlikable who vanquished John Edwards and former Gov. William Weld.
Maybe we should just learn to like his unlikability.
