I met Arizona State Senator Kelli Ward at some meeting of state legislators a few years ago. She made no secret of her ambition to become a United States Senator. I liked her attitude, and she seemed plenty smart. I wished her well.
I just saw her on the Lou Dobbs Show on Fox Business, and I almost didn’t recognize her. She’s had a total do over — hair, makeup, clothing, her entire physical appearance. It’s the price women must pay for seeking high political office.
With men, it’s not so bad. You want to look good, but it’s not that important. Except sometimes, like the 1960 Presidential election.
I got to shake John F. Kennedy’s hand on the campaign trail in 1960, and I met Richard Nixon at a meeting of College Young Republicans in Miami in 1966. Kennedy was a rock star. Nixon looked like he belonged in a mortuary.
Standing next to one other at the first televised Presidential debate, the contrast was striking, and cost Nixon the election. It was mostly a female thing, but men weren’t immune. I know, because I got to see the most handsome man I’ve ever met at a whistle stop in Pittsburgh, California.
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