I don’t know. If you’re honest, how many U.S presidents have been handsome. I mean, I’m a heterosexual guy, so I am not the best judge. But I think both the winners and losers of presidential elections have never been the best looking lot. Clinton, Reagan, and Kennedy weren’t too hard on the eyes. I think Obama is fairly handsome, although you have to get past the ears. But, beyond that? Name me a president (or presidential runner-up) better-looking than the average person in line at the Division of Motor Vehicles.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
So much irony:
His nephew got four terms. Rosy Greer, a former football player, restrained Sirhan Sirhan.
Also notable that Teddy was referred to as a colonel instead of a president.
Teddy preferred to be referred to as “Colonel”. It both allowed him to downplay his aspirations to the Presidency and build up the greatest moment of his life: killing Spaniards.
Holy crap. Speaking of the DMV, today was just a reminder to me of how anti-democratic voter-ID laws are.
So despite my steadfast opposition to getting a license, I finally have to due to economic realities. I have an ID-card and a passport with me, and two pieces of mail. I go to information, “You need a birth certificate.”
Well, w/e. No big deal, not like I stood in line yet. So I go back home, get my birth certificate, and go back. After two hours, I’m finally called. I provide my ID-card, passport, two pieces of mail and birth certificate. She can’t start the license process because the mail I gave didn’t fit the list of criteria. One of the pieces of mail I provided came from the Federal Government — the Department of Education — but it wasn’t on their “list” of acceptable things. So now I have to go tomorrow.
But yeah, what a load of crap these voter-ID laws are. Sorry for the OT, but your mention of the DMV made me think of it. And on that note, no, sorry, most presidents are more attractive than your average person in line at the DMV 😛
Really? FDR, Truman, DDE, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Ford, Poppy, W. ?
I don’t think so.
And that doesn’t even get into Adlai, Goldwater, HHH, McGovern, Mondale, Duckakis, or Dole.
Ugly motherfuckers, one and all.
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/photos
Just saying, the DMV gives those folks a run for their money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-a64OwOYqU
Also, too.
Way too harsh and well off base in most assessments. Ugly — LBJ, HHH, Truman (those narrow beady eyes), Nixon. All the rest have at least above-Mendoza line acceptable looks. Including FDR ferchrissakes — first time I’ve seen him put in the ugly category (Eleanor though … Homely for sure). And didn’t Jerry Ford do some modeling in his youth?
Depends on the DMV.
Most 19th century Presidents were… homily. Jefferson was somewhat attractive, Monroe doesn’t look it from pictures but was considered attractive. Pierce had a certain elan. Most of the Anonymous Bearded Ohioans were sort of generically OK looking.
But Harding was the first telegenic president. FDR was handsome in his way. JFK. Reagan. Clinton.
The old saying that Washington is Hollywood for ugly people still applies, but butt-ugly people never take the top of the ticket.
they were…sermon? Homily== sermon
You probably meant homely…and yeah, they were…
hmmm.. One can’t really point to any mid-late 19th-century Prez as handsome…descriptions of them are coloured by the era’s Victorian mores, and one couldn’t paint Married Men as physically attractive, lest it taint the Females who would be fans with Adultery…
That said, there were plenty of men who looked attractive by way of looking distinguished… Jackson, Taylor, Grant, Garfield…
in the 20th century, we have more photos to flesh out the descriptions, so yeah, TR, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, all looked distinguished and from that sstandpoint, handsome. Physically attractive individuals would be (as described elsewhere here) Kennedy, Clinton, Obama… Dubya might appeal to some, by dint of his age at start of term, but not later.
Oh well…I’d still rather have ugly but effective over a pretty incompetent any day…
Yes, homely… Or hominy, as in corn.
Wilson routinely disparaged his own looks, especially compared to his father. His chin and jaw were…unique.
You do have some cultural differences in eras. Eisenhower was considered handsome by some at the time, but today he just looks like an overgrown Elmer Fudd.
Kennedy was cute. George W looked good – when down hill fast as his presidency went on. Obama is VERY handsome. Very. Ears and all.
geez. I meant “WENT”. WENT down hill.
Uh no. JFK was handsome — about as much as is possible or fair.
Dan Quayle was cute. Perhaps Dennis Kucinich with the ears and the diminutive stature. But not Kennedy — nothing dainty or effeminate about him (though in private the insecure LBJ mocked what he saw as Kennedy’s tiny ankles).
Who said he was dainty or effeminate? cute is not synonymous with dainty or effeminate. Cute is cute. And JFK was cute. And Hell to motherf-ing now about Dennis Kucinich. Hell no. Not cute, not handsome. Just not. Dan Quayle? Not ugly.
Just saying circularly “cute is cute” isn’t very helpful.
The word has always connoted for me some dainty or diminutive or effeminate quality when used to describe a man, though it’s not quite as effeminate as, say, describing a man’s face as “pretty” I suppose. But in the ballpark.
NO ONE is attractive at the DMV because they’re all so upset about being there at all.
However, as a gay man, I can say Obama is HOT. Kennedy was HOT. Clinton was kinda eewww. Dubya had a nice bod but so disgusting in every way that the negatives WAY outweighed the positives. Bush Senior was a creepy old man. Reagan was hot when he was young but he deteriorated pathetically. Plus his politics were so destructive that he should always be remembered as the Devil. Carter is a great human being but in no way sexy. Ford was not sexy himself but I loved his cool family Something sexy about the seventies, anyway. Nixon – you know, ick. Johnson was always drunk, I thought. Already said Kennedy was hot. Eisenhower was too old but I liked him as a grampa type and he did good. Truman was a great man and probably very sexy (or at least lovable) in his day but I just don’t know.
Historically, way before my time, I find that some of them had that hot daddy-bear appeal. Especially when they had beards or were redheads. but that may just be my personal taste. BTW – Lincoln – TOTALLY HOT. I know he must have suffered from depression or something but he was totally hot.
More…
Possible candidate Rick Perry is hot in his own way but the utter stupidity overrides everything else. Yeah, he could be really hot if you could stand to listen to this dumber-than-a-fencepost idiot for more than a couple minutes.
Also, too… Mitt Romney may be hot but the Magical Mormon Underwear will prevent you from ever finding out for sure. Plus he’s a greedy bastard. Unless you’re an heir, just move on.
Michele Bachmann may be decent looking but I’m no judge of women, much less CRAAZY women. Her handlers dress her up nice but she always looks crazy anyway. Her husband is the creepiest child molester I’ve ever seen. Keep your young boys away from him.
Sarah Palin is horrid. I don’t know what anyone sees in that freak. But her “first dood” husband looks really hot, though I have NEVER heard his voice. He’s just always standing around looking like a totally fuckable prop that we will never know anything about.
T-Paw, while now out of the race, always disgusted me. He’s such an empty-headed dumbfuck and doesn’t even have the sex appeal needed to overlook that stuff.
Rick Santorum is just so creepy I don’t even know where to begin. I feel sorry for his dogs.
Rick Perry and Mitt Romney are too plastic to be hot. Obama is very attractive. Clinton? He has the charisma to spare, that makes him hot.
As a bisexual woman I’d like to say that Michele Bachmann is disgusting. Especially with corn dog.
Palin is also disgusting. With or without her rifle.
Their husbands are also disgusting.
Both Clintons? Disgusting.
Obama looks very nice in a bathing suit.
Really, I can’t think of anyone in either party who really appeals. Probably just my politics.
Oh, dear. So it wasn’t enough that we have to decide whom we’d like to have a beer with? If we’re gay and male, we have to say whom we’d like to sleep with as well?
Well, ok, then.
I think I vote for none of the above. I liked one of the Kennedys, but it wasn’t JFK.
I can sorta see Lincoln, but it’s always been one of the mysteries of the universe to me why guys in the nineteenth century were sexier. I’ve never figured that out, but I think it must be an illusion of the photographic process of the time. I’m voting for Grant over Lincoln though.
If I have to confess to an attraction to a contemporary Republican, it would be Bobby Jindal.
I’m surprised about Bobby.
I think he’s really goofy looking. Maybe it’s the way his head sits on his neck. Maybe it’s just his neck.
He’s the poster boy for pencil-necked geeks.
Maybe, but goofy in a cute kind of way.
We’re talking about politicians, not actors or baseball players. The bar isn’t all that high.
Ike was hot as a young officer (and Mamie was cute too):
http://buckfifty.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/eisenhower_with_mamie_web.jpg
My partner & I don’t generally share tastes in men, but agree about Obama – he’s a total hunk. And I know many, many other people – male & female – who thought so in 2008. It clearly helped him a lot, first against Clinton, then especially in contrast to McCain.
I’m not sure that comparisons to past eras are useful. We’re in a new media age. JFK was the first TV president, and his visual contrast with Nixon was his margin of victory (with a big assist to Richard Daley). When the parties have offered photogenic candidates since (Carter, Reagan, Clinton, GWB, Obama) they’ve done well. Arguably in every election since ’72 the most photogenic nominee has won. (2004 is the only really questionable one, and were it not for hijinx in Ohio the sitting pres would have lost.)
But we’re entering another phase now, where media is ubiquitous and presidential-level politicians are mostly marketed and covered like celebrities. That was Obama’s big leg up in HRC in 2008, which in new media time was generations ago. If Palin had a work ethic and some self-discipline and weren’t a narcissistic imbecile, she might just have pulled off the whole gravitas-via-Facebook & Twitter routine while skipping normal campaigning altogether. And her photogenic nature has a lot to do with how close she’s come to pulling it off anyway.
Perry’s got a shot at going that route, too – he’s “Gov. Goodhair” for a reason. Don’t misunderestimate him.
Yeah. Much of the media (mostly men) all have Viagra-sized boners for Rick Perry right now. What’s up with that? Man-crushes all around. They don’t seem to want to acknowledge that he’s a total empty-headed dumbfuck yet. He uses his position to get people to pray for rain. And it never does.
Enough said, I hope.
But yeah. Most people I know think Obama (and his wife) are hot. Nice change.
Obama is a total hottie. It is not hard to get past the ears at all. Rick Perry’s looks disgust me. How could anyone have a Viagra sized boner about him? Jon Huntsman is good looking, so it’s not Perry’s ideology that is clouding my vision. And Romney is okay looking, in a Guy Smiley from Sesame Street way.
Well, there’s this.
Obama has SWAGGA.
he’s handsome and smart, which always adds to the handsome.
I wouldn’t put O higher than above average in looks, from my hetero male perspective. The big ears and too broad nose bring down his numbers, but the tall looking slender build, the deep resonant voice and the good intelligence more than compensate.
If JFK rates a 10 on handsomeness, O scores a 7.5.
Btw, I do not understand anyone putting Abe in the Hot category. With or without beard. From a hetero or gay pov.
Too broad nose?! Fuck you! His nose is an average nose size for a man of African decent. Equal to the average penis size of men of European decent. And cut the I’m heterosexual shit. When you have to say it, 9 times out of 10 you are trying to convince yourself.
Come on, now. Two or three people have already seen fit to specify that they are gay or bi and that’s OK, but saying you’re hetero is not? Think about that for a minute.
Thx budr. The poster above wildly overreacted. And besides a few other posters noting their hetero status, our outstanding blogmeister here, Mr Booman, also saw fit to specify he was hetero.
Is it fair to say that average is not, by definition, attractive?
Ears and too broad nose bring Obama down? Good thing you two aren’t bar buddies because you would be very confused as to why women keep throwing themselves at him.
Yes, those two traits bring down his rating in this still Euro-centric culture where small and slender (i.e non-African) noses are preferred by most.
But I also noted a few positive qualities — physical and non — which I notice you don’t credit me for crediting with Obama. There are those plus obviously the fact that he’s prez and power tends to act as an aphrodisiac with some people (accd’g to the Kissinger theory) and so makes them seem more attractive than they would otherwise be.
We’re also obviously in the subjective-political preference area here, and it’s clear some of you are mighty sensitive about the slightest flaw spotting even if fairly and sincerely held. Relax. I like the guy, voted for him once w/enthusiasm and probably will again (if it’s vs Perry). I just don’t see the great physical attraction some of his longtime backers do, is all.
Kennedy and Obama are the only do-able presidents.
Firstly, GTFOH with that I’m heterosexual so I can’t judge what a good looking man looks like. Men kill me with that shit as if it makes you Gay to say another guy looks good. You are a human being. You know when another person looks good irrespective of gender. That said, if you think President Obama is just “fairly handsome” you just outed yourself as a typical white guy with a serious inferiority complex to good looking black men. You know he’s fine as hell and no doubt built like a horse. You really think all those white girls were screaming for “yes we can”? And if your wife says Obama is just “fairly handsome”, she’s lying.
Wanted to add: I don not and never will get the physical attraction to Bill Clinton. He is not good looking at all.
Personally, I find Obama VERY handsome. I suspect that, like most women (and many men too, but probably fewer), my perception of someone’s personality, intellect, etc., is a big factor in how attractive I find him. If I’d never heard of Bill Clinton or George W. Bush and just saw their photos in a line-up, I’d probably find Bush more conventionally handsome. But knowing what I know, I think Bush is hideous and Clinton is attractive in a old rogue kinda way.
Rick Perry – The New Ronald Reagan – TheStreet
Gag me with a spoon.
Teddy Roosevelt would break apart the modern GOP and eat its tiny morsels for lunch.
Yes. And I’ve thought more than once, if Goldwater had lived long enough, he would have called Bush and Cheney both out in the street and kicked their asses.
If you include runners up, Thomas Dewey was a dapper fellow.
Obama not hot? You ever seen him in a cowboy hat? Hubba hubba, Bubba! That man is so fine, he makes Perry look like a dried-out old heap of mesquite twigs.
http://breadline.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/obama_cowboy_hat.jpg?w=300&h=290
http://images.forbes.com/media/2009/08/13/0813_obama-cowboy-hat_390x220.jpg
http://houston.culturemap.com/site_media/uploads/photos/2010-08-09/Barack_Obama_president_cowboy_hat
.350w_263h.jpg