Not Cute

[poliphilo]

When you become a senior politician (not to mention President of the United States) there are certain things you forgo. And one of them is cuteness. There is no way you can hold the fate of millions in your hands and be cute.

It doesn't matter how wise and beloved you are or how devious and hated. Abraham Lincoln and Richard M Nixon are equal in this. They are neither of them the least bit cute.

Cuteness is bound up with being small and helpless and vulnerable and pretty. Cuteness and power don't mix.

Which is why George Bush talking to his doggies in the Oval Office is so utterly embarrassing.

Comments

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I dispute your premise:

"Cuteness is bound up with being small and helpless and vulnerable and pretty. Cuteness and power don't mix."

My board chair (male) is very powerful in the Philadelphia cultural and heritage community. And he's cute as a bug. Sometimes cute as two bugs. so there.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I think we'll just have to agree to differ there.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Surely. I happen to believe that many powerful people are cute. As for playing with their doggies: consider FDR; consider Queen Elizabeth.

Part of the issue here, I think, is that, for the folks who don't like Bush, *everything* he does strikes the wrong note.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

Yeah--I can't imagine him as "cute" under any circumstances.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with the dogs (though I'm a rabbit man myself) but the blatant use of the dogs to soften the image of the leader is (I think) misjudged.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I don't have a problem with the dogs (though I'm a rabbit man myself)

I think you are delightful.

:)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks ;)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

They gave it quite a lot of airtime on whatever news programme I was watching- and the presenters gave every sign of thinking it charming and funny.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

On Newsnight last night the Bad Puns department named it the "War on Terrier".

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Spot on!

[greybeta.livejournal.com]

LOL, that is an awesome bad pun.

Well maybe it's the only thing about Bush that I DO like!

[mummm.livejournal.com]

You know... I don't think I have ever known a president who has not been shown with their dogs/pets at some time or other... The only one I found offensive was LBJ picking his beagle up by the ears!

Gosh... even Winston Churchhill was known for having a very spoiled pooch! The Queen has her Corgies! I could go on...

Nixon had a black cocker spaniel I believe...

Re: Well maybe it's the only thing about Bush that I DO like!

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Nixon's dog's name was CHECKERS! How could I forget that?

Re: Well maybe it's the only thing about Bush that I DO like!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I don't mind them having pets. I expect it's highly therapeutic. It's the attempt to get some of the cuteness of the pet to rub off on the master that strikes me as all wrong.

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

do you think that none of Clinton's appeal was cuteness? I think his gosh-aw-shucks, puffy-lipped puppydog looks played a big part in his personal likeablility.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about that. It hadn't struck me before. I'd have said Clinton was sexy rather than cute, but I guess the two things are closely related.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

At least the doggy film isn't as crass as the stunt he pulled where he was crawling about under the desk "looking for WMDs"

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I personally have always thought of Bill Clinton as cute. Before Monica Lewinsky, that is.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

For me the aura of power kills any suggestion of cuteness. I'd have said Clinton was attractive, sexy, likeable, but not cute.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

to me he had that puppylike thing.. but I repeat, before Monica. Then he definitely lost it and became a sex symbol ;-)

[philtration.livejournal.com]

I wish that George Bush talking to his doggies in the Oval Office was the most embarrassing thing that he does.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Amen to that!