Anyway, Buttigieg clearly chose to display beard stubble. Why?! I've been hearing for 60 years that Nixon made a horrible blunder going on TV with 5-o'clock shadow.
But let's get a little correction from the Richard Nixon Foundation:
RN was not recovering from the flu, but from an infected knee. He was clean-shaven, though his complexion tended to give the impression of a five o’clock shadow. While the recently-hospitalized RN did not look his best, he hardly had the death’s-door appearance of legend. (When I show video of the debate to students, they wonder what the big deal was about.) JFK was youthful, but so was RN, who was only four years older....Obviously, candidates learned long ago that they needed to tend to their appearance. Lighting and makeup are important, and you'd think every single man would go with a super clean shave. Don't make the Nixon mistake!
So why did Buttigieg decide — and it has to be a deliberate decision — to go with visible stubble?
One reason that seems very clear is that his problem is that he may be too young. As you can see from that quote from the Nixon Foundation, Nixon's problem was that he looked tired and old next to the youthful John Kennedy. Buttigieg is much younger than anyone else, so it was in his interest to look older.
I can think of other reasons. Stubble is masculinizing, and he might want to make a strongly masculine impression to defend against whatever prejudice against gay men is at play in voters minds.
And he might want to cancel out the Alfred E. Newman impression he makes on some people ... including President Trump:
Alfred E. Neuman is a beardless doofus. I mean, occasionally he sports a beard...
... but that's not the image that springs to mind. And it's not stubble.
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83 comments:
i noticed he started the non shaving a while ago;
i ASSUME, that his "advisors" thought it made him look less like a little boy
MY PREDICTION IS: IF he doesn't drop out, he'll have a scruffy little hipster beard soon
Is he old enough to raise a beard? Inquiring minds want to know.
I wanted Senator Klobuchar to say “Obrador, Obrada, life goes on, la”
“and he might want to make a strongly masculine impression to defend against whatever prejudice against gay men is at play in voters minds.“ Exactly. Especially after we learned the brand of his face moisturizing cream from his husband.
The Dems are basically the same on their policies, but what is the general impression?
Bernie. Crazy old socialist who is always angry.
Liz. A shrieking angry harridan.
Pete. Smart ass arrogant condescending prick.
Joe. Senile old man.
Amy. Sensible shoes and not up to the job.
Bloomberg. Unprepared. Unrelatable.
Word is he bleaches his anus. Then tans it. Surprisingly. Always trendy, our boy Pete.
The rest of us don’t suffer from “prejudice” against gay men, prof.
You have a sexual kink in respect to gay men.
Your mommy protector thing seems to get activated with this kink.
“The poor boy! The big mens are being mean to him!”
I noticed that and thought he was trying to look butch. But Howdy Doody never looked butch.
"Are you trying to say that I'm dumb?" is a feminist retort. I dare you to think that in a cancel culture.
@David Begley, but at least Bloomberg was willing to defend capitalism. The other six not so much.
Question out of nowhere.
Why is your gay man sexual kink such an important class distinction?
There are probably as many wife swappers and swingers out there as gay men.
Where’s the passionate campaign to legitimize and advance wife swapping and swinging? Why shouldn’t they come out of the closet and be celebrated as yet another aspect of our glorious diversity?
Why is your kink any more important than any other?
A nice reply would be that men's and women's intelligence is measured differently. Start a conversation.
"I can think of other reasons. Stubble is masculinizing, and he might want to make a strongly masculine impression to defend against whatever prejudice against gay men is at play in voters minds."
At best he went from a bottom to a top.
"Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me?"
Yes Amy, he is. I mean not Inga dumb. But yes, dumb.
The thing of it is that Pete’s sexuality is a main source of his popularity. If he was straight and had the same record as mayor, he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. Wouldn’t even have entered the race. He’s a novelty act.
Pete is just a good Harvard talker. That’s it. A failure as Mayor.
"David Begley said...
The thing of it is that Pete’s sexuality is a main source of his popularity. If he was straight and had the same record as mayor, he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. Wouldn’t even have entered the race. He’s a novelty act."
And Althouse's moron son's choice to lead this country because of it.
The stubble is a young guy thing. My son in law looks like that all the time.
but! But! But! He's GAY!
That means, If we don't support him.... We Are Homophobes
We don't want to be thought of as Homephobes, do we?
So; We HAVE TO vote for little mayor pete!
Plus, he's tough! He doesn't even bother to shave (just moisturize)
If Pete really wants to go masculine, nothing beats a full handlebar mustache and full leather bike gear.
CG
John Althouse Cohen is no moron. Check out his blog from last night.
Nebraska Supreme Court Judge John Grant was famous for saying, “We can disagree without being disagreeable.” The Begley Addendum: And we don’t have to call other people names.
John Grant was a great guy. One of his sons was a year ahead of me in high school. The judge used to play cards with Warren Buffett. Grant was a funny guy. Warren is too!
Buttigieg was proclaiming his millennial status by showing his stubble.
Clean shaven is not in. Five o'clock shadow is.
Or so I have been told by my 37 year old son in need of a shave who was in Buttigieg’s class at Harvard.
I didn’t watch the debate, but has no one commented on how Amy’s entire face looks like it is sliding downhill to her left in the clip Althouse provided? Very disconcerting.
What Begley said @ 6:47.
Chance that Buttigieg would even be in the race in the first place if he were *not* gay: less than zero.
Identity politics and pandering to liberal white women. Obviously.
Might as well nominate the gay dude from Will and Grace. What’s the difference? It’s all about image and checking the right boxes for these people.
Good ideas: not required!
I liked Amy's counter, too. It put Butti on his heels. Suddenly he's attacking a woman...
Nixon, “I’d also like to express my fondness that particular beer”
Homer, “The man never drank a Duff in his life”
The stubble is a young guy look. There's no Nixonian connotation for anyone who hasn't studied history, which is all of the socialists for starters...
Nixon probably drank Fudd.
I will say that Amy K, without any doubt whatsoever, has captured the all-important Frumpy Vote Coalition.
Re: The Kennedy-Nixon debates. I read somewhere that people who LISTENED (radio) to the debate felt that Nixon had won; those who watched it gave the edge to JFK.
Visuals matter. Men are visual (the name of my blog).
THEOLDMAN
I remember the Kennedy Nixon debate. It was playing in the student lounge, with a few goveernment-type nerds watching it.
"I liked Amy's counter, too. It put Butti on his heels. Suddenly he's attacking a woman..."
I thought it made her seem like a cry baby. If you are as big a bully as she reportedly is she should be able to take a rhetorical punch without playing the victim. Nobody called her "dumb" there are plenty people of normal intelligence that are bad at their jobs. Most of them probably.
"he looked tired and old next to the youthful John Kennedy"
One of the many visual lies Dems have perpetrated. For as we now know, JFK was a physical wreck. And let's not even get started on #MeToo. JFK rose on the lies of the Dem establishment.
The difference today is, we deplorables are completely on to their game, and we've got the Internet to break through prog hegemony to some extent.
@Begley:
"John Althouse Cohen is no moron."
"[Pete] is a novelty act."
JAC strongly supports Pete.
?
Sebastian:
JAC has his reasons for supporting Pete. Reasonable people can disagree. I think Pete is inexperienced and has a record of failure as mayor. POTUS is not his next job. The Oval Office is not a place to train. The stakes are too high and events move too fast. And his drug decriminalization plan would destroy America.
"David Begley said...
CG
John Althouse Cohen is no moron. Check out his blog from last night."
I've checked out his blog. That's why I know he is a moron. He supports a guy to be POTUS simply because he is gay. And because it might be decades before that happens again. That's a moron. What about last night's blogging makes you think otherwise. That he can watch something and tell you what happened?
"The Begley Addendum: And we don’t have to call other people names."
You called Mayor Pete, one of the leading Dem candidates for POTUS, a novelty act. Where's the Begley Addendum when you need it.
Amy: "Look, Pete, we all know you don't like women, but you don't have to call me stupid."
Althouse was right at the beginning. Amy is boring. The Dems need to be for boring if they want any chance to beat Trump.
"Dave Begley said...
JAC has his reasons for supporting Pete."
No, it's "reasons", it's one reason. Because he is gay.
CG:
And before that I called Pete a smart ass, arrogant condescending prick. I regret using the word "prick" but the other words are a fair observation of his manner and character.
I, of course, would never call him a racist. That's not fair. But he called me a racist in Carroll, Iowa and that was totally unfair. Now people are calling him a racist and I'm sure that's unfair and he doesn't like it one bit.
Pete is just angling for some high paying job after July. He might pull a Hillary and move to some state and run for Senate after he makes some money.
Althouse, I think you need to factor in the fact that the JFK v Nixon debate was filmed in B&W.
"Dave Begley said...
CG:
And before that I called Pete a smart ass, arrogant condescending prick. I regret using the word "prick" but the other words are a fair observation of his manner and character.
I, of course, would never call him a racist. That's not fair. But he called me a racist in Carroll, Iowa and that was totally unfair. Now people are calling him a racist and I'm sure that's unfair and he doesn't like it one bit.
Pete is just angling for some high paying job after July. He might pull a Hillary and move to some state and run for Senate after he makes some money."
Tap dance all you want Begley, your "addendum" should state "I can name call not because I have reasons, but because they are MY reasons, which is why you can't because you only have YOUR reasons."
There are a lot of 20 and 30-something aged men in the company at which I work. The not shaving for a couple of days look is relatively popular among them. Full beards are too. And lots of product in the hair on their heads. Other than this last item this look was not acceptable at work, especially in a customer facing role such as sales, until recently. I've even taken to wearing a short trimmed (#1) Van Dyke. No one mistakes me for a young man.
Perhaps Pete is trying to appeal to the young and image conscious voters.
It is a hipster thing. A quarter of the men between 35 and 55 do this no shave deal. Puzzling.
I think all women who support Petra should grow a stubble.
Poor Meade.
As noted by some conservative sites last night was a circular firing squad in action.
Maybe Saint Pete wanted to show us that he does not have to be clean and baby's butt faced. He is free to chose the masculine role no matter what his husband prefers.
The funny thing is the historical consensus was that Nixon actually won the debate. If not for Cook county he probably would have won the election. The most awkward guy ever in politics, Bloomberg should study how Nixon won in '68. After I wrote that then I humorously thought oh yeah Blow-Me needs to hire another Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.
No amount of stubble is going to make Mayor Pete look masculine.
But it's his cradle communism that's the problem.
The stubble thing is one thing but that crap above his upper lip looked awful.
CG
There is a difference between calling someone a name (e.g. moron or prick) and saying he is arrogant and condescending. Arrogance is a manner or characteristic.
Harridan is a descriptor for Warren.
What's so puzzling about not wanting to shave? Shaving is unnatural. Islam thinks that shaving takes away your manhood so it must be true. it's a fashion style that was spawned by the first world war and the requirement for a proper fit test of a respirator. My old school ACLU femenist Aunt stated categorically that she would rather have the curse every month than to shave everyday like a man.
I agree that no amount of stubble will make Major Pete look more like a man. He should follow the Trump model and just effeminize himself. Oh wait that won't work because he's trying to appeal to women and they don't like that. It's only the beta males that love the effeminate male who lowers the ego threat level.
Why do you assume the look and performance hurt Nixon. Because the Media spun it that way.
That's a good point MadMan. I love tricky dick but he was wrong, the media is still kicking him around even today
Strangely, Trump is clearly an alpha male despite the weird skin tone, oddball hair, etc. For better or worse.
Again, my objection to Pete is what he believes, not how he looks.
"Dave Begley said...
CG
There is a difference between calling someone a name (e.g. moron or prick) and saying he is arrogant and condescending. Arrogance is a manner or characteristic."
No, not really. Plus you did call him a prick, and a "novelty act." That's not a manner or characteristic. You're a lawyer? Because you make weak ass arguments.
Please try again.
He doesn't want to come across as a fem.
But does Chasten approve? If not, I imagine we'll be hearing about it.
The contrast between Nixon/Kennedy and the current crop of clowns is dispiriting.
I was a Nixon fan. No surprise. I was bummed when he lost.
He probably thinks it makes him look less rat-like, but his behavior isn’t helping things.
I watched the clip. I'm surprised at anybody seeing Klobuchar's rejoinder to Buttigieg's apt criticism as anything but weak and pathetic.
Apparently a fair proportion of the audience thought it was killer, though. "Humble"...applause applause applause. "Check out my bill-passing stats." Uh, wut? No slamming back with evidence that she really is totally on top of trade and border issues?
This why I never watch this stuff. Obviously nobody's interested in impressing me.
Buttigig was going for the "macho look" popular these days with some young guys. The mayor pete-amy dust-up reminded me of a smart young student mocking his out-of-touch teacher.
"Are you saying I'm dumb?" with your voice cracking is not the look you want from a President.
Of course, getting the Mexican Presidents name wrong isn't much of an error. Its actually a cheap shot, but its not like Senator Amy is above giving cheap shots, she just doesn't like being on the receiving end.
One reason that seems very clear is that his problem is that he may be too young.
Ya think? He didn't run in 2016 because he wasn't old enough to run in 2016! Did anybody ever think that he may be glib but have no fund of life experience to draw upon? People at 35 know nothing! In an age where you stay on your parents' insurance until 26, what's 37?
Blogger DarkHelmet said...
Strangely, Trump is clearly an alpha male despite the weird skin tone, oddball hair, etc. For better or worse.
Indeed! E.g., it takes a strong man to wear pink. ZFG is alpha.
At journalism school some three decades ago we had to watch Nixon's news conference following his defeat for governor of California in 1962. The "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore line," that's so often mentioned these days was just a blip and the contemporaneous news coverage mostly ignored it.
Because Dennis Miller said he looked just like Kim Darby in True Grit.
That was then and a Republican, this is now and a Democrat.
Nixon would look worse in high-definition TV
The 1960 election ruined the Democratic Party, which spent the next decades going after young, good looking candidates. In the current election cycle Beto, Buttigieg, and other youngsters checked that box. How the party ended up with septuagenarians vying for the top slot is a strange quirk, probably due to Democratic failures at the state level during the Obama administration.
There's something calculated and rehearsed in Buttigieg's persona. The stubble just seemed premeditated. It wasn't that he had a busy day and didn't have time to shave. The stubble was as deliberate as the face lifts on some of the other candidates. It's more performance than character...I get the sense that Buttigieg came up from central casting. He knows his lines and delivers them with credible impact, but he doesn't really have star quality. Tab Hunter in a John Wayne role.
I go no-shave for wind abatement in cold spells, for bike riding.
I always thought Nixon won that debate hands down. He was smarter than JFK and it shows. But accepting the debate was his big mistake. Before the debate he was Ike's VP the guy who argued with Khrushchev and won and JFK was just a Senator from Massachusetts. After the debate, the two were equal in the eyes of the public. Its why Nixon never debated the Hump or McGovern.
If we were just nominating a debater-in-Chief, then Buttigig would win hands down.
It begins with Amy Klobuchar — "Are you trying to say that I'm dumb? Are you mocking me?"
Corporal Agarn on F-Troop used to have the catch-phase "Who says I'm dumb?"
And perhaps the best-remembered recurring gag involved O’Rourke who would casually mention to Agarn, “I don’t know why everybody says you are so dumb.” A few moments later, in a completely unrelated moment, Agarn would finally wonder out loud, “Who says I’m dumb?”
Larry Storch is still alive at age 97.
Alfred didn’t recognize the hanging curveball: the obvious response to Amy’s whine was, “c’mon, lady... you eat salads with a comb, fer Chrissakes!”
Hadn't ever heard either of them speak. Having to be defensive never puts anyone in her best light but Senator Klobuchar, eh, I'd inferred from press and comments here etc that she's not going to be president and am confirmed in that opinion. I didn't see any Buttigiegian stubble but only watched for two minutes. He's not going to be president, either; although I can see the Demos nominating him after they've run another, après Mrs Clinton, female.
I have read that a young Mike Wallace produced the RMN-JFK debate for CBS News and he made sure that Kennedy was always shot in the middle distance and soft focus, while Nixon was always seen close up and in sharp definition. If so, the five-o'clock shadow effect was mostly imposed by the media, who weren't necessarily any less biased and duplicitous 60 years ago than they are now. I don't keep files on this stuff and don't remember the source, but you can see how it could happen.
Occam's Razor says he did it to be taken more seriously
Pete did it to prove that he's gone thru puberty.
Wonder if hubby bought him the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/fashion/stubble-trimmers-give-men-the-after-5-look.html>Miami Device</a>...for that Don Johnson look?
Wonder if hubby bought him the Miami Device...for that Don Johnson look?
probably due to Democratic failures at the state level during the Obama administration.
Yeah. Losing more than a thousand state and federal seats over an eight-year period will do that to a party.
It's the one good thing Obama accomplished. Shovel-ready, indeed.
In 1960 if you had 5 o'clock shadow, you were a lowlife or a villain.
You were either Weary Willie the hobo, Woolly Willy the magnetic iron filings toy, or Herblock's cartoon Joe McCarthy.
Nowdays if you have a stubble beard, you are a hipster.
Is it possible even for a second for you to pretend that you don't live in 1960 any more? Even for just a second?
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