Is He Handsome Enough to be President?

How much does a presidential candidate's physical appearance factor into the national election? The New York Times sought to answer this question on page A29, in the Op-Ed section, of Monday's paper. A small box on the front page of the paper announced that the Times would be consolidating some sections "to increase production efficiency;" however, instead of using the limited Op-Ed space to analyze the candidates' stances on crucial issues in the last month before the election, the Times filled almost half of the page with a chart entitled "The Measure of a President" (http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/10/06/opinion/06opchart.html). The chart, which listed candidates' heights and weights along with detailed physical outlines of the politicians since 1896, compared the physical composition of candidates and pointed out trends in the election results.

While these trends are interesting (such as that voters chose the taller candidate by a margin of 17-8 and the heavier candidate by 18-8), the chart itself merely perpetuated the misdirected focus of the media on physical appearances instead of substantive politics. Such a chart would be expected in a soft news magazine or even a tabloid, but one could barely argue that it meets the standard of hard news reporting expected of the New York Times. It is not as though the Times needs to scramble to fill its opinion pages; on the contrary, this election has roused public attention and debate unlike any other in modern times. The content of the chart could have been condensed into a brief aricle, which would leave room for actual opinions in the Op-Ed section.

Besides providing a visually pleasing chart with entertaining information, the Times inadvertently sent a disparaging message to the public; it does not matter who you are or what you believe, because your genetic makeup plays a significant role in determining your political success or failure. This undermines the democratic process, since it emphasizes that the voting population judges more on physical appearance than on issues. It also might deter women from running for public office, since they are typically shorter and lighter than their male counterparts. The chart in the New York Times not only made me worry about the state of journalism; it made me worry about the state of democracy in an apparently superficial society.