>poor Ralph (the eternal bachelor)
One of the funniest (as well as perhaps the most unfair) articles about Ralph Nader is this: Jennifer Bleyer, "Ralph Nader, Love God," <http://archive.salon.com/sex/feature/2000/11/02/nader_love/>. Nader is actually tall ("6-foot-4," says Karen Croft <http://www.salon.com/bc/1999/01/26bc.html>) and handsome. If only he had learned to cash in on his Arab heritage and milk gonadal politics, transforming his bachelorhood into a darkly seductive mystery (an asset rather than a liability), so to speak. . . . Unfortunately, despite his ethnic birthright, his personal and political style is whiter and straighter than Clinton, if not Gore and Kerry.
What Nader needs (at least to win over shallow voters of LBO-talk) is a make-over (advice on poise and wardrobe from Omar Sharif?) and a gossip-worthy sex story (like he's been having a stormy relationship with a Jewish man in the closet). Not bloody likely. . . .
>But for most voters, "marrying" the candidate -- having what they
>fantasize is a close, personal relationship with her/him -- is
>basically what voting is all about.
Is it just coincidence that Ralph Nader is an eternal bachelor, Dennis Kucinich has been divorced twice, and Howard Dean has a defiantly frumpy wife (don't get me wrong -- I love her on this account alone)? :-0
I think Matt Gonzalez <http://www.mattgonzalez.com/> is really cute (too bad he's endorsed Kucinich). And he did quite well in San Francisco, where I assume voters are discriminating on matters such as this. Then again, San Francisco is so unlike the rest of America. . . .
On the whole, the left has done better in glamor contests in social movements than in electoral politics.
Think of Che Guevara, Angela Davis, Malcolm X, etc. -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>