While the male presidential candidates - Barack Obama and John Edwards - were posing for GQ and Vogue to spruce up their image, Hillary Clinton's team was busy supplying questions for supporters to pose to Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail to boost hers!
When Hillary Clinton stopped at a bio-diesel plant in Newton, Iowa, to witness alternative fuels in the making, she fielded questions from supporters who had gathered to greet her.
Surprisingly, when a young woman asked Hillary how her plan would combat climate change, the ever-optimistic candidate was ready with a pat answer.
"You should be worried. You know, I find as I travel around Iowa, that it's usually young people that ask me about global warming."
Of course, Hillary got egg on her face when it was revealed that her handlers had specifically selected the question for a faker to raise to bolster her image!
To be fair, a Clinton campaign spokesman openly admitted to planting the question, but underscored to reporters that Hillary did not know which questioners she was calling on during the event.
I was inclined to believe her camp, but as I was finishing up the draft for this post, I noticed a news article in the morning Times which reported that there was another similar incident a few months ago, as well.
On that occasion, the supporter informed Clinton's staffers that he was uneasy about the idea, so he was abandoned as a potential helper in the scheme to make Hillary look good to voters.
Of course, it's incidents like this which have caused some Americans to be so mistrustful of Mrs. Clinton.
You know what they say about crying "wolf", too!
Too often, Hillary has expected the benefit of the doubt - and right about now - she's skating on thin ice.
If image is an all-important consideration - especially as the Presidential Race moves into the next stretch - all candidates would be wise to pay attention to a recent study that was carried out with "swing voters".
According to the New York Times, a group of researchers used functional magnetic imaging, to watch the brains of a group of swing voters as they responded to questions about the candidates - John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama - to name a few.
The registered voters - twenty in number (ten men & ten women) stated at the offset they were open to choosing a candidate from either party.
The enthusiastic group of guinea pigs were then given a list of ten questions, focusing on their political preferences; later, their brain activity was studied in a high-tech gizmo to log the results.
After the first session, the participants answered a second questionnaire.
During the course of the research, the swing voters viewed political pictures through a scanner with special goggles.
During the first part of the study, subjects were shown a series of photos of candidates in random order; video excerpts from speeches followed.
In the next stage, a second set of photos were scrutinized thoroughly.
On the before and after questionnaires, subjects were asked to rate the candidates on a scale of 0-10, facilitating a process frequently used in polling.
The swing voters in the study marked their papers accordingly; the responses were either - "very unfavorable" to "very unfavorable".
The results were intriguing.
When subjects were shown the words Democrat, Republican, and Independent, they exhibited high levels of anxiety in the part of the brain called the amygdala.
Also, the two areas in the brain associated with anxiety and disgust - the amygdala and the insula - were especially active when men viewed the word "Republican".
Curiously, the three labels denoting each party, also elicited some activity in the brain area associated with reward - the ventral striatum - as well as other regions related to desire and feeling connected.
However, there was one exception. Men showed little response, positive or negative, when viewing the term "Independent".
Apparently, voters who rated Mrs. Clinton unfavorably on their questionnaire, were not entirely comfortable with their assessment. When viewing images of her, these voters exhibited significant activity in the anterior cingulate cortex - an emotional center of the brain that is aroused when a person feels compelled to act in two different ways but must choose one.
Researchers concluded that the subjects were battling unacknowledged impulses to like Mrs. Clinton.
Interesting!
In contrast, subjects who rated her more favorably, showed very little activity in the brain area when they viewed photographic images of the Senator.
The researchers theorized the results indicated Mrs. Clinton may be able to gather support from swing voters who oppose her if she softens their negative responses to her.
However, in spite of the foregoing, she may be vulnerable to attacks that seek to reinforce negative associations.
So, listen up, Hillary!
According to the team, John Edwards has promise, but suffers a difficult problem to overcome.
When looking at his picture, subjects who had rated him low on the thermometer scale showed activity in the insula, an area associated with disgust and other negative feelings. This suggested to the researchers that swing voters' negative emotions toward Mr. Edwards could be quite powerful.
On the other hand, there is good news for Mr. Edwards...the swing voters who did not give him low ratings, when looking at still photos of him, showed significant activation in areas of the brain containing mirror neurons - cells that are activated when people feel empathy.
The activity of the subjects infers voters feel connected to the man.
In the final analysis, John Edwards has a strong effect on swing voters - those that do like him and those that don't.
Photos of Barack Obama failed to indicate a notable lack of any powerful reactions, positive or negative.
He was rated relatively high on the pre-scan questionnaire, yet both men and women exhibited less brain activity while viewing the pre-video set of still pictures of Mr. Obama than they did while looking at any of the other candidates.
Among the male subjects, the video of Mr. Obama provoked increased activity in some regions of the brain associated with positive feelings, but in women it did not elicit change.
The study concluded that Mr. Obama has failed to register an impression on some swing voters. While his speech resonated with men in the study, it failed to engage the women.
Since the scans were taken, researchers claim that Mr. Obama has changed his tone, and are enthused about any changes that may be reflected in the next round of studies.
