Tuesday, November 07, 2006

That word, it doesn't mean what I think you think it means

I've just read a news article with the headline, "Charisma has an impact on election outcomes: study". To which my first reaction was, "well, yes".

However, it turns out that the study was in fact on the relative effect of a person's appearance, versus what they actually say, on election results. Which is a rather different matter. Still rather an obvious one, though.

To assist the people who conducted the survey, here are the factors that contribute to election success, in decreasing order of importance*. The ideal candidate should:

1) be very tall.
2) have really good hair.
3) smile a lot.

And that's about it. Being articulate is over-rated, being intelligent is irrelevant, and being of strong moral fibre is a distinct liability.

It's fair to say I'm no fan of democracy.

* I should note at this point that I didn't come up with these criteria. I'm only repeating them, largely because they're depressingly accurate.

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