The fixation on political image

Re “Hilarity for president,” Opinion, Feb. 3

I think the larger point is not whether Hillary Clinton has a sense of humor. It’s this “image” business. All recent Democratic presidential candidates have worked on projecting an image during their respective campaigns, and a careful one, at that. The result is that Al Gore and John Kerry, two gentlemen who might well have taken this country in a saner direction than where we’re headed, gave their most powerful and appealing speeches after dropping the image and conceding defeat.

Hopefully, one day a liberal candidate will emerge who refuses to listen to handlers and behaves from the heart. He or she will most certainly feel cleaner in the long run and just might get elected.

PAUL MANTEE

Malibu

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Clinton is definitely not known for her terse wit. As Meghan Daum astutely notes, her recent gaffe to voters in Iowa was symptomatic of Clinton’s wonkish nature. In fact, I’m willing to bet that this will be one of many kerfuffles on Clinton’s path to the presidency. Why? Because she knows that she’s a polarizing figure. To overcome this stigma, she inevitably will make more overtures that come across as pointless jokes. And, more than likely, she will fail at them.

Thus starts the self-defeating, feedback loop of being a career politician.

MALOU INNOCENT

San Leandro

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It looks like playing the race card is being replaced with playing the gender card. What do Kerry, Clinton and Gore have in common? They are obsessed with how they are perceived by the public. They do not dress, eat or go to the bathroom without first consulting a strategist. Unlike Barack Obama, they are not comfortable in their own skin, and it becomes painfully obvious when they try to act funny. More times than not, it backfires because it is always contrived.

By the way, to debunk Daum’s premise about women not being perceived as funny, I recall the wit and humor of the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards, someone who certainly was comfortable in her own skin.

GENE E. SCHWARTZ

San Diego