We've heard a lot about casinos, gambling and tourism since Hurricane Katrina took out the slot machines and blackjack tables on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
With all this talk about Gov. Haley Barbour and the 2008 presidential race, it seemed like time to take a good historical look.
Back in the day, one of my history professors said that the American voting public would never elect a fat, balding man as president. Television, he said, meant that people wanted to see a svelte, well-coiffed gentleman as chief of state.
This particular professor used as an example the awful, awful disaster of the 1960 debate between a healthy looking U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy, Democrat, and the pasty appearing Vice President Richard M. Nixon, Republican.
People judged Kennedy's performance based on his tanned good looks, my professor said.
Ah, the art of television.
We know now, thanks to historian Robert Dallek, what extremes JFK used to look that healthy.
But, the point is: He looked good.
Now, since Kennedy, we've been through Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush.
I still believe Nixon was an anomaly. Of course, I adhere to the Phillip Roth school that Nixon had over-active sweat glands on his upper lip and eternally shifty eyes. Poor man could have exclaimed, "I am not a crook" and served as a Quaker-converted-to-Catholic altar boy and still looked shifty with those eyes of his.
Thus, if you adhere to the power of television theory, then there's no wonder that people didn't believe Nixon because of his appearance.
Ergo, the credibility gap.
OK. Back to the Gov.
Barbour has plenty of hair. He has a good do. The hair is salt-and-pepper, which makes him look distinguished.
He has beady eyes, but they're pleasingly so. He shouldn't have any problems there.
However, our dear state leader is fat.
That's it, and I feel his pain (see the photograph at the top of this column).
In recent years, Bill Clinton took a bit of lip from the media about his penchant for fast food, which made the former leader of the free world chunky, but not fat.
Now, I've been around the Gov, and overcoming this might not be as hard as it seems.
He might tote a little tonnage, but he's in fairly good shape. I haven't seen him breathing heavy after any extreme handshaking or maneuvering from the car inside to the air conditioning.
The Gov didn't sweat profusely publicly while touring the Gulf Coast with the Pres the other day. I looked for the tell-tale trickles on the side of the jowls and the upper lip.
Remember, as in the case of Nixon, the upper lip can destroy you politically.
Even with all the positives, it's apparent that the Gov will have to have a little image help.
Karl Rove could lend a hand. After all, Rove turned the current commander in chief (aka Yale graduate and elitist Texas oil magnate) into a good ole boy who struts around Crawford and enjoys the farm.
Maybe Rove could take the Gov and mold him into a regular American Joe.
After all, medical specialists have complained for several years that most of us carry too much weight, eat bad food and don't exercise.
I can see it now. The Gov dressed to the nines with his Pillsbury Doughboy belly sticking over his belt in the commercials: "Vote for one of us."
He'd get the plump vote and then some. I bet some folks might cross over from the Democratic Party and join the Fat Cats just to feel better.
That's it: Feel good about yourself. Vote for the Gov for pres.
Maybe all of us would become so fat and happy we'd forget about waging war and turn our attention to things like health care and Social Security.
What am I saying?
Obesity cuts life short. What need would we have for long-term health care or Social Security?
Hey, that would work all the way around. With fewer people, the Gov would have less to deal with.
But, wait, wasn't that the point of his Medicaid cuts?
