I think that the presidential candidates’ personal lives will not affect voters decisions. The nation, more so than other election years, seems hyper aware of key issues and the critical state of the union, and while voters cannot help but know many personal details of the different nominees, when it comes down punching the ballet, I think the current national and international issues will take precedence.
This may seem like a naïve statement. The media has given more attention to the every minute facet of the candidates’ characters than ever before, and for every report on senate record or policy, we seem to get their favorite food or most inspirational book or black-and-white picture montage of their childhood. But I think that this can be attributed to two factors:
1) The strange modern American need for human interest stories in the midst of hard news
2) The extraordinary length of the campaigning—the two year + buildup to the 2008 election has simply given us (and the media) the luxury of time. Iraq and healthcare can only fill up so many hours after all.
The first factor is simply what it is. It can be discussed verbatim about the state of the world when our news sources report the body count in Iraq next to Britney Spears custody battle, but the fact remains that people like stories that humanize and ground the news and the people in it.
So it makes sense that this phenomenon would translate to the election. People are simply interested in what happens behind the scenes of the debates or the senate floor, but regardless of this fascination, I truly think that what will stick out is not that Giuliani has had upteen wives (the latest of whom seems to call at bizarre times), but that he is hard-line when it comes to national defense.
Yes, people will youtube every romantic gesture between Hillary and Bill Clinton, but how many times have you heard the name “Monica Lewinsky” in the past year? Not much. At least I haven’t.
Which brings us to the second reason: these people have been on the campaign trail for a long time. A really really long time. And they still have a while to go. And with “Road to the White House” as one of the top stories on every news channel and magazine, there is bound to be some time to fill with private details or idiosyncrasies.
The point being that I don’t think that the amount of knowledge we have on the private lives of the candidates is indicative of where the public will place that information when it comes time to make a decision.
The personal lives of the candidates will only matter if there is a direct line drawn from the private detail to the issue at hand. What does Fred Thomson’s time on Law and Order have to do with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Not a whole lot. And I think people realize that.
This election is truly a critical one—and I think that most people get that. The big issues seem endless: Iraq; Healthcare; Education; Iran; Osama Bin Laden; the Environment; the Real Estate crash; China; Immigration; New Orleans; Inflation; and on and on.
There is simply no room for people to make their decisions based upon the superficial. There is not a single demographic in the nation that does not have a significant concern—and they will be looking for the candidate that seems to have the best solution for that problem.
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