An
Article that appears in the New York Times 9/26/04
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Live From Miami, a
Style Showdown
September 26, 2004
By ALEX WILLIAMS
IN boxing terms, you could say a matchup between
John Kerry
and George W. Bush is a classic case of a dancer
vs. a
puncher: Mr. Kerry flicks around the periphery
of issues;
Mr. Bush pounds right through them.
The matchup on Thursday at the University of
Miami, site of
the highly anticipated first presidential
debate, can be
expected to pit the two men against each other,
trading
punches over Iraq and job creation. But if
previous debates
are any guide, the candidate who voters perceive
as the
winner will probably be chosen not on the
substance of what
he says, but on the cut of his jib.
The subtle style cues of gesture, posture,
syntax and tone
of voice account for as much as 75 percent of a
viewer's
judgment about the electability of a candidate,
said Bill
Carrick, a political consultant who ran Richard
A.
Gephardt's presidential campaign this year. In a
word, he
said, the mano a mano is about style - those
nonverbal
messages that speak to hearts, not heads.
"I think they're both aware that this is
more about your `Q
factor' than about scoring a debate," Mr.
Carrick said.
"It's much more like being a host of a
television show."
Experts in body language, linguistics and
personal grooming
who have watched the candidates in recent weeks
offered a
cheat sheet to home viewers about how each is
likely to
come across: his strengths, weaknesses and the
color of his
neckties.
Countenance Counts It is the candidates'
faces that voters
see and judge first. When it comes to Kerry
vs. Bush, it's
"The Jaw of Thunder" meets "Lips
of Destruction."
"We don't recognize that facial structures
speak volumes,"
said Caroline F. Keating, a professor of
psychology at
Colgate University who has studied status cues
transmitted
by facial features.
Mr. Kerry's face, she said, is the greater study
in
contrasts. His anvil-like chin conveys power,
but his
droopy brows and hooded eyes send an unwelcome
signal of
age and lethargy. To counteract this, Professor
Keating
says, he must show more animation and smile
more, as he has
been doing lately. "Smiling brings people
in close," she
said.
Luckily, she said, he has a buoyantly vertical
hairstyle.
"He has exciting hair, which is actually
quite useful," she
said. "This wild, untamed hair is something
we associate
with youthfulness." (Republicans don't
necessarily agree;
they mock the Capitol Hill blow-dry look as
vain.)
Professor Keating said that with Mr. Bush,
conversely, the
roundness of his face - accentuated by
close-cropped hair -
signals warmth and approachability but also, at
times, an
unfortunate boyishness.
The power in the president's visage comes from
his narrow
eyes and lips, which are signs of dominance, she
said. But
when he blinks his eyes and licks his lips,
apparently when
agitated, she said, "these things make him
look less in
command."
Dress Codes Unfortunately for image
doctors, no flight
suits or bomber jackets will be worn onstage.
Ever since
Richard M. Nixon was thought by some to have
blown the
first 1960 debate in part by wearing a gray suit
against a
gray background, the clothing choices for
presidential
debaters have narrowed to nearly zero.
The navy blue wool suit is a de facto uniform.
"The lapels
should be not more than four inches," said
Georges de
Paris, a Washington tailor who has made several
suits for
President Bush. Invariably the suit has "a
very slim fit in
the chest, one vent in the back," he said.
Shirts are
usually white, worn with red power ties.
It is with accessories that the candidates
differentiate
themselves. Mr. Bush has recently been wearing
French cuffs
with gold cufflinks, which can reinforce an
impression of
executive acumen. Mr. Kerry wears a yellow
wristband from
the Lance Armstrong Foundation, an advocacy
group for
cancer survivors, which may lend a dash of
youthful
athleticism.
Body Politics Another message viewers
pick up is the
authority implied by body language. Does a
candidate carry
himself like the hunter, or the hunted?
It is imperative, image experts say, that the
two stay
loose, but not slack. Each must telegraph that
he is
comfortable in his own skin, because in some
sense it comes
down to which man you would want in your living
room for
the next four years.
"John Kerry has the military posture -
straight-up back, a
very strong presence," said Kevin Hogan,
a corporate public
speaking consultant in Eagan, Minn., who has
analyzed body
language. "George Bush has a little hunch
in his shoulders,
sort of an S-curve in his spine, which should
work against
him."
But when the more compact president (5 feet 11
inches, to
Mr. Kerry's 6 feet 4 inches) avoids fidgeting,
he can use
his rather explosive physique effectively, as
when he leans
toward the camera and squints out threats to
terrorists, or
pounds a podium softly but methodically.
The candidates use hand gestures to different
effect, Mr.
Hogan said. The president gestures freely when
he is most
at ease, and it seems to underscore his
sincerity.
He uses a "windshield wiper" motion -
sweeping his right
hand from his chest to his side - to underscore
his
heartfelt points. "It's the most powerful
thing he does,"
Mr. Hogan said.
Mr. Kerry tends to use extravagant gestures when
he's least
sure of himself, critics say. The Democratic
challenger has
even been mocked in online blogs for this
tendency to wave
his arms out of sync with his words when
flustered. He also
tends to chop the air when hammering home a
point.
One effective motion by Mr. Kerry appears to
echo the only
Democrat to win the White House for two terms
since the age
of polyester, said Ms. Keating's colleague at
Colgate,
Spencer Kelly, who has studied hand gestures.
The Clintonian gesture, Mr. Kelly said, starts
with a fist.
Mr. Kerry then tucks the right thumb over the
forefinger
and cocks the wrist so he's punching softly at
the air, as
if holding a small gift. He explained: "It
means, `I'm
holding something out to you. You're in good
hands.' "
Henry Fonda vs. Steve McQueen "The
audience that will be
watching are avid television watchers,"
said Philip B.
Dusenberry, a retired chairman of BBDO North
America and
founding partner of the Tuesday Team, a group of
advertising executives that created television
ads for
Ronald Reagan in 1984.
"They know what to look for," he said.
"If one candidate
seems nervous, or starts groping for answers,
he's got a
problem."
And in a close match, even one deftly delivered
witticism,
as long as it seems spontaneous (like Reagan's
"There you
go again" in 1980) could be the deciding
factor.
"Both candidates will be very well
prepped," Mr. Dusenberry
said. "They will know all answers before
questions are even
finished being asked, but how they answer them,
with humor
and wit, will really go a long way."
Each candidate must channel his gifts as an
onstage
communicator - that is, a thespian - said Susan
Batson, a
longtime acting coach.
What Mr. Kerry should do, she explained, is open
himself
up. If he tries to be like the resolute Mr.
Bush, he'll
fall into his old trap: woodenness.
His greatest opportunity, she said, is to laugh
more, to
radiate a vulnerability with his eyes, a sense
of
compassion and wisdom, as opposed to
single-mindedness and
aggression. He can be "sort of a
combination of Henry Fonda
and James Stewart," she said.
While a critic of the president, Ms. Batson
allowed that he
has a native power, and could effectively
channel his
energies in the eyes of his audience by
rerouting his
toughness and condescending overtones into a
more
recognizable loner-rogue archetype. "There
is a potential
for Steve McQueen," she allowed with a
sigh.
Another Hollywood acting coach, Larry Moss, said
that even
the tone of voice is crucial.
The president's voice, he said, has a vaguely
metallic
quality that he must not allow to grow shrill.
It should be
incisive, not cutting.
Mr. Kerry's challenge is perhaps greater, said
Mr. Moss,
who has coached Hilary Swank and Helen Hunt. He
needs to
redirect from his head down to his gut.
"You need a certain amount of viscera to
get people to feel
you," Mr. Moss said. Mr. Kerry needs to
expand the dynamic
range of his voice, and avoid a monotone. The
sound should
come from deep in the diaphragm, not high in the
throat.
Syntax Soup Both candidates have syntactical
minefields,
now very familiar to voters, that they must
avoid. Mr. Bush
sometimes mangles the language, while Mr. Kerry
has a
tendency to ramble, when an audience wants
punchiness. He
also uses what George P. Lakoff, a professor of
linguistics
at the University of California, Berkeley, calls
"hedges,"
words and grammatical constructions that imply
uncertainty
or qualification.
"There are certain forms of grammar that
don't commit you,
phrases like `I believe' or `I think,' "
Mr. Lakoff said.
"Kerry has to learn not to do that."
"It is possible to be decisive and not
sound decisive,"
said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the
Annenberg
Public Policy Center at the University of
Pennsylvania.
"People who speak in sentences that contain
parenthetical
phrases, people who begin a sentence and then
deflect to
add a series of illustrative examples before
they end the
sentences" do not seem authoritative, she
said. "The
language of decisiveness is subject, verb,
object, end
sentence."
Equally important to Mr. Kerry, she said, is to
refrain
from using words like "gilded" and
"panoply" at the
lectern, as he has on the stump.
"Words found on the SAT verbal exam,"
she added, "should
not appear in candidate's speeches."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
Kevin Hogan, leading body language expert,
interprets the body language of President George
Bush and Senator John Kerry during and after the
debate for news media. If you need Dr. Hogan's
help in analyzing the body language of Bush and
Kerry, email him at kevin@kevinhogan.com
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