I'm mildly amused to see how my request for AOL news with the keyword
:"disability" works, sometimes. And a little annoyed, here. The full article
below, so I'm not accused of being a tease.
<<``Al Gore's personality is here to stay. Instead of treating his wooden
stiffness as a disability or explaining it away, the Gore campaign should
boldly proclaim it as his badge of honor,'' said Immelman, who presented a
study on Gore's political personality last year to the International Society
of Political Psychology.>>
Regards,
Kay M. Olson
Tempe, AZ
<<Gore: Personality a `Requirement'
.c The Associated Press
By DEB RIECHMANN
WASHINGTON (AP) - The rising importance of personality in TV-age politics was
the heart of Al Gore's honors thesis at Harvard in 1969. Today, personality
is the very trait some people think is missing in Gore's bid for the
presidency.
Asked what word best describes Gore, two-thirds of Americans polled this
spring said: ``Boring.''
Gore jokes about his reserved demeanor, but 30 years ago he speculated in his
thesis that television had made a personality that would play to the cameras
a requisite for future presidents.
As soon as TV cameras began panning the political landscape, as soon as TV
lights spotlighted presidential news conferences, as soon as presidents could
bypass reporters and talk directly to millions of American TV viewers,
personality became more than just a plus for prospective presidential
candidates, Gore wrote.
``A key factor in this trend is the increasing importance of the president's
personality,'' Gore surmised in his 1969 paper, ``The Impact of Television on
the Conduct of the Presidency 1947-1969.''
``Because of this, it is possible to speculate that a `role requirement' of
the president in the future might become `visual communication.' Just as an
effective speechmaking technique has been a role requirement in the past.''
Gore presented his 103-page thesis, which traces the history of presidents on
TV, to earn a bachelor's degree in government with honors at Harvard. Back in
1969, Gore's father, Al Gore Sr., the late senator from Tennessee, gave the
paper to Herbert Klein, President Nixon's communications director. Klein
filed it, and it ended up in President Nixon's papers stored at the National
Archives.
Now, personality is an issue for Gore's campaign for president - one he can
only overcome with fresh ideas, said Erwin Hargrove, a political science
professor at Vanderbilt University who wrote a book on presidential
leadership, style and personality.
Hargrove was in Carthage, Tenn., this month when Gore launched his
presidential campaign.
``He was his sober self,'' Hargrove said. ``Then he started shouting. I guess
he was trying to show he has some blood in his veins. It doesn't work. I
think Albert has enough force of personality. He needs a message.''
Asked about Gore's bland public image, Marla Romash, deputy chairman of the
Gore campaign, sighed.
``The vice president has answered this,'' she said. ``He's said, `I am who I
am.' Anybody who knows Al Gore knows he's a funny, engaging, warm guy.''
Gore even pokes fun at himself, telling the joke about how he's so dull that
the Secret Service code name for him is ``Al Gore,'' or standing motionless
at a podium to imitate himself under a fast-blinking strobe light.
For Gore to be a contender for 2000, Aubrey Immelman, an associate professor
of psychology at Saint John's University in Minnesota, said, he needs to drop
the self-effacing jokes altogether and send the message that his stiffness
reflects integrity; his woodenness portends what would be a focused approach
to the business of leading the nation.
``Al Gore's personality is here to stay. Instead of treating his wooden
stiffness as a disability or explaining it away, the Gore campaign should
boldly proclaim it as his badge of honor,'' said Immelman, who presented a
study on Gore's political personality last year to the International Society
of Political Psychology.
In case Gore doesn't take this advice, Marc Perkel, a computer programmer in
Springfield, Mo., is soliciting new jokes Gore can use in his campaign.
Perkel, an early Gore supporter, ran a lighthearted campaign for Congress
last year when no Democrat filed in his heavily Republican district.
``Gore gets into this Mister Rogers mode when he talks to the public,''
Perkel said. ``He's a real sharp guy and so sometimes he talks slow and
simple so as to be understood by larger numbers of people. He needs to lose
the Mister Rogers thing and be a little more relaxed.''
AP-NY-06-25-99 1551EDT
Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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