I didn’t want the poll about Jackie O’s looks and style and the offshoot comments about other 1st ladies to stand alone. We equal-opportunity shallow Dopers here. What about the Presidents themselves? Who wins in the looks and style department? Split them into separate categories if you want to. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to help you much. All men of the same general fitness level look the same to me and they all get put in the same clothes so there isn’t much for someone like me to go on.
The only things that I know are what other people have told me. JFK gets all the standard accolades in this department but I am not sure how other people see it. He was fairly young but in terrible health. He looked tan all the time because he was so sick. Reagan was good looking when he was younger (he was a movie star after all). Bush Jr. was in really good shape. Gerald Ford looked like a generic semi-attractive guy I guess. I have heard mixed reviews about Clinton. He was a ladies man but unfortunately, he used his superpowers to pick up trailer trash and fat chicks. Hell, I have I ugly friends with no money and no job that do better than that. I have no idea about Obama. He looks pretty passable to me but the ears do stand out.
What is the rundown on Presidential looks and sex appeal?
Well, I’m the wrong polarity to have an authoritative opinion on this matter, but I’d agree that you start with JFK and Reagan and work your way from there. It’s a bit complicated, in that most Presidents are fairly old, and, of course, the standard for masculine appearance has changed a lot over the years. I’d say that Jefferson, Jackson, McKinley, Harding, and both Roosevelts were all fairly well set up gentlemen.
I still don’t understand the JFK thing even if he wasn’t sick. He looks just like a stereotypical Irish-American guy that you would see walking all around Boston today especially in the Southie area. I was at an event this weekend that had a bunch of them. I have never heard anyone swoon over them although I assume they are moderately attractive to some people. I am not saying he was ugly and neither are the seemingly trillions of others that look just like him to me but I don’t understand why he stood out at all.
On second thought, I think I am overthinking this. I have have never understood why any man is considered attractive other than just general physical condition like you would judge a Rottweiler in a dog show. I will let the those more inclined to the subject determine it.
Warren Harding’s good looks were supposed to have helped him win the first presidential election where women voted. I suppose that Harding was better looking than his fellow Ohioan and opponent James Cox.
It might be personal charisma too. I’ve heard that about JFK and Clinton, that both had tremendous charisma that came across in person like a freight train. Numerous people have written about meeting Clinton, that it felt like - even though you were in a room full of people and he’d gone around meeting dozens of people before you - that you were the only person he wanted to spend time with at that moment when you were talking with him.
For pure looks, I’d say young FDR and probably Obama (yes, the ears are a little awkward but he’s got an awesome smile).
I can attest to the Clinton thing personally and I wasn’t even a big fan at the time (I like him much more in retrospect). The Secret Service picked me out of a group of eager college student to meet his motorcade when he was campaigning for his first election. I was the ‘Moam back’ for their arrivals. That is the person that says ‘Come on back, come and back’ and shows them where to park and them greets everyone as they get out of the car while cameras flash everywhere. I met him twice that night along with a lot of other famous people.
The man was freaking huge in a way that is hard to describe. I am tall and not small myself but he dwarfed me. Everything about him was big from his head to his hands to his personality. The second time I met him a few hours later, he still remembered my name just like we grew up together. Like I said, I wasn’t a huge fan at the time but I can certainly understand why he made an impression on people. He is like the oversized perfect politician. I still don’t know why he picked fat and ugly chicks though. My girlfriend met him too and she was way hotter than anything he ever got and he didn’t hit on her.
They werent/arent all fat and ugly tho. Clinton goes for a very specific look in women, and most of them resemble Dear Old Mom in one way or another. And at least Paula Corbin Jones got a new nose and better teeth out of her deal.
I think it’s Obama in a landslide. JFK looks like your average guy to me. Clinton is weird looking but very charming. Franklin Pierce had awesome hair, so if hair is more your thing you gotta give it up for Pierce. Too bad he was a dismal drunkard.
I agree that Obama might be the best-looking president, that JFK was kind of funny-looking, and that Clinton has the tall and charming thing going for him. It would be nice, though, if we could compare images of each president at the same age - maybe 35 or so?
Having Googled a handful of presidents that I thought might have been dark horses in this race, though? I have to say that (of all people,) Gerald Ford was a bit of a looker back in his day! And I can agree that Reagan was handsome, too, but every image I see of him except this one kind of creeps me out.
