Reply #20: Yup. [View All]

It's all in perceptions. McGovern blew the Eagleton affair and was perceived as weak. Not Presidential material. Nixon's spinmeisters capitalized on that, and hammered the "Liberal" label. Much as Johnson hammered the "Conservative" label against Goldwater.

Nixon remembered well how that debate with Kennedy blew him out of the water. He had a five-o'clock shadow and seemed nervous-- the electorate got a bad impression, and it was all over. Curious how everyone forgot about Checkers a few years later, but that lame plea helped sink him back then.

Dukakis lost because they humiliated him over the tank business and Willy Horton, not because of policy.

People vote with their emotions, and vote for who they think will handle the job best, not who has the best position papers.

Image-- it's all image.

btw... Nixon also remembered all those voting machines in the Chicago River, and how his machinations in "Egypt" didn't make up for it. Made them work harder to steal what they could. A lesson they haven't forgotten.

I'll toss my flamebait in here now and say Clark has the image. More image than anyone I've seen running for President in a long, long time.