Shirtsleeves

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Perhaps the symbolic communication by candidates is in the details, too. So, I want to write about shirtsleeves.

Laugh, you may, but I think the way the candidates roll up their sleeves says something. (A caveat: This generally refers to male candidates, since rolling up sleeves is mostly a masculine style. But I bet, given the chance, Carol Moseley Braun can roll up her sleeves better than most of the guys.)

A comparison: Last night I picked up an old issue of a weekly newsmagazine from early September. The story discussed John Kerry's inability to break away from the pack, largely because of Dean's insurgency. (Sometime later I can talk about why it's rather unfair of the news media to pre-anoint Kerry as the frontrunner and frame any candidate that they didn't expect to do well an insurgent.) Anyway, the pictures were what was most interesting.

On a big motorcyle (a Harley, I believe) for a photo op was lanky John Kerry, wearing loafers (making him look as appropriate here as Dukakis did in 1988 in a photo op tank ride), and with his sleeves rolled up. No, they weren't rolled up, they were folded up neatly, cuff-width, at mid-forearm.

On the opposite page was Howard Dean, sleeves rolled up tight to his elbows, just like Paul Wellstone used to do his shirtsleeves. (The Fab 5 on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy call this "szuszing" your sleeves, and they highly recommend doing so. By the way, the national news media has no standard for how to spell szuszing, so I'll go for my quasi-Hungarian spelling. The consonants sound like the Zsa-Zsa of Ms. Gabor.)

What does all of this shirtsleeve business mean? Well, from a symbolic communication perspective, which candidate can really roll up his sleeves (a quintessential campaign trail look)? Who looks like he really can get things done? Who looks more informal when he's trying to look informal? And who looks a little too tentative when he's trying to be with the regular folk?

In a previous post, I noted the rather passionless ads by Kerry. Honestly, that's what I think is hurting him. But the lack of passion is not just in the ads. This man really doesn't know how to roll up his sleeves.

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Goodbye to Bob Graham. I give him credit for coming to Iowa and grilling bratwurst and providing the beer (even though I didn't get to attend this event). He's already been wiped off the candidate list at http://www.democrats.org/whitehouse/, so we're down from 10 to 9 candidates again. Who benefits the most? I think John Edwards, as he's now the only one from the Southeast.