Issues or Image?

[LuminousX]

No matter how this electin turns out, Clark will be examined thoroughly on how he jumped to the top of the pack over career politicians like Kerry and Gephardt. Many claim his lack of detailed positions on all sorts of issues is an achille's heel, but this opinion piece (http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0929/p09s02-coop.html) argues that image really is more important than substance.

In a fashion I agree with it. For the most part the policies a candidate wants to implement have to be filtered through congress so get diluted. Arguably, what is more important is the person behind the issues. Is he a fighter? Can he work out compromises? Is he an idealogue/fanatic or is he flexible?

What is interesting is when we start to look at each candidate's specific policies towards issues we are left with very subtle differences. This is one of the reasons why I feel comfortable supporting and voting for any one of the top-tier and some of the second-tier candidates. Some, I feel will do a better job in achieving the bottom line than others, but at the end of the day, they will end up pissing off some people and making some people happy. That is the nature of politics.

[DemDogs]

1. Issues + image = Edwards

Family man with the best all around policy statements (some of which other campaigns are "borrowing"), Southern, great life story, great communicator, great vision.
In terms of questions in the the editorial, Edwards is definitely a fighter. He has fought big business when it trampled on individuals his whole life. And even better: he is a winner; he won those fights. He also works out compromises: he was the one who made the banking bill work a couple of years ago even though he was only a freshman senator. And he worked compromises and was flexible when he successfully managed the Patients' Bill of Rights.
If you want to know more about him, check his own website at
<http://www.johnedwards2004.com/john_edwards.asp> or (if you don't trust that) the in depth investigative profile of him in the Raleigh (NC) News and Observer <http://www.newsobserver.com/edwards/profile/>

[Feanorcurufinwe]

2. Image is ok -- except when it is a false image.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." -- Abraham Lincoln

A good image is important for a candidate, of course, but for us, the voters, it is important to go beyond the image to the substance. Indeed it is our duty and obligation.