The Election: What’s “Like” Got to Do With It?

By Selwyn Duke

“I like Obama,” said a man I know of when explaining his support for
the president. His sentiment isn’t unusual, as Barack Obama is, we’re
told, a likeable man. In contrast, we hear that people have trouble
“connecting” with Mitt Romney, that he’s an overly-starched blueblood
who can’t relate to the common man.

Of course, it’s hard for people to connect with you when the only
connection they have to what you say and do is through a media that
hates you. In contrast, when that same media smoothes out your rough
edges and whites out damning comments you make, it’s a lot easier to be
likeable. This certainly is the case with Obama, a man who has called traditionalist Americans “enemies,” said
that they “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t
like them…,” and considered his brief time in the corporate world as a
case of “working for the enemy” (he seems to have a very unlikeable
habit of viewing fellow Americans as “enemies”). And based on what I’ve
heard through the grapevine, the real Obama exudes an arrogance that’s
anything but appealing.

Let’s say, however, that I’m wrong and Obama is just the most affable
bloke around. Is this really meaningful? Could it even be a red flag?

Read the rest here.

2012-09-28 10:09:51

Source: http://selwynduke.typepad.com/selwyndukecom/2012/09/the-election-whats-like-got-to-do-with-it.html