Looks and Yucks

It's a wee point and I apologize for my shallowness, but why the devil are the cable talking heads insisting that Paul Ryan is handsome or photogenic? He's certainly not.

Granted, I'm only a guy and a straight one at that. Maybe I should be disqualified from commenting. Yet, I have eyes. I've read much literature as well as such analysis as the Survival of the Prettiest (I recommend it and bought it long ago).

Rep. Ryan appears to be the love child of the infamous sexter Anthony Weiner and a cartoon character like Dumbo or Dopey the dwarf. For the later, it's the ears. Disney is predatory about protecting copyright, so no pix of them here.

However, consider the official, public portraits of Ryan and Weiner.

They are more than separated at birth. Ryan on the left has the absurd ears. Both have disproportionate features that preclude them from that pretty class.

In addition, both project (my sense) smarminess and lack of sincerity. I'd count my fingers after shaking hands with either.

Why should it make any difference if Ryan is another cartoonish, Dumbo eared, Dudley Do-Right jawed very plain guy? It's only because mass media are telling us again and again that he is attractive. We are programmed to believe that if a woman or man is a looker, she or he has other virtues.

Amusingly, our society simultaneously clings to the dumb-blonde and similar stereotypes that pretty folk can totally lack common sense. That's another matter.

In this campaign, a meme is that Romney and Ryan are the pretty pair. Their campaign does nothing to say, let's forget our rugged, swarthy good looks and talk about issues. They'll take it.

They're not about to advertise, "Vote for Dopey and his dopey economic failure."

We should note that Paul Ryan is hard to look at. Whoever started the meme that he's a beautiful person was wack and just plain wrong. If we get over that fantasy, perhaps we can get to his fantasy budget proposals.

National Fantasy

Ladies and Gentlemen, come November Sixth, the bifurcation to end all forks in all roads confronts all voters. Surely at least 40% of them will head toward a fantasy land. Here's hoping with all my being that they don't take us with them.

I'm old enough, well read enough, and observant enough to draw some lessons an inferences from past elections. This looming one is huge, at least as big as the last Presidential. In 2008, Obama promised a clean break with the failed winger economic legacy of Reagan and the Bushes, as well as with their suicidal, economy-destroying wars. He only kind of delivered, hampered mostly by GOP total disregard for the nation and his own temerity.

Despite Republican efforts to keep millions jobless and our taxes going for military over-spending and benefits to the wealthiest only, we have slowly mirrored the rest of the world in recovering from the Great Recession caused by the parody of capitalism so beloved by wingers. Yet, this election may hinge in large part on the impatience and irrationality of the voters. Even with the GOP House and filibuster wielding Senate preventing big recovery efforts, the electorate tends to look to the President for magic.

Setting aside the reason, the Obama administration has been on duty while we only slowly recover. Many will look to the any replacement as the fantasy miracle he did not deliver.

You'd think that voters would go for the rational response — dump every Republican House member up for election and increase the Dem majority in the Senate. Let's pass the necessary legislation to get the nation moving!

Alas, that would require awareness of reality. Isn't the fantasy more seductive?

We'll be kicking this around tomorrow on Left Ahead. Our version of Ryan, as in Ryan Adams, my co-host, will discuss the election with the Paul Ryan pick. If you can catch us live at 2:30 PM Eastern Tuesday 8/14, do that here. Afterward, it will be available for a listen or download there, on Left Ahead or at our iTunes page.