Post on 07-Jan-2023
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 1
Personalizing Mitt Romney:
An analysis of the Romney campaign’s efficiency in using Ann
Romney to deploy “personalizing” visual frames at the 2012
Republic National Convention
Nicole K. Strickland
Georgia State University
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 2
Abstract
With the proliferation of television and internet
information sources, a large part of the electorate has come to
rely on ‘image bites’ as they decide for whom they will vote.
(Lenz & Lawson, 2011) The focus of Presidential nominating
conventions has shifted from party policy to the candidates’
personal traits. (Panagopolous, 2012) An image consultant’s
function is to distinguish the nominee’s strengths and weaknesses
then utilize visual frames to craft an aesthetic meant to
reinforce strengths and downplay weaknesses.(Graber, 2010) A
candidate’s wife is invaluable - not only can she ‘personalize’
the candidate, but she can individually produce visual frames
that will reinforce her husband’s frames. This study uses Grabe &
Bucy’s 3 step system for frame creation: first, to discover
Governor Romney’s pre-convention strengths and weaknesses, then
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to decide which frames to utilize and finally to deploy those
frames via Ann Romney. (Grabe & Bucy, 2008) Utilizing single-
source live stream video of the Republican National Convention’s
August 28th broadcast (ABC News, 2012), I will explore how
effectively the Romney campaign utilized the Ann Romney to
reinforce the frame. I will use Rodriguez and Dimitrova’s 4
layers of framing as a format for the analysis. (Rodriguez &
Dimitrova, 2011)
Keywords: visual framing, Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, 2012 Republican National
Convention, 2012 Democratic National Convention, political image consultant,
personalization of politics
Personalizing the nominee:
An analysis of the Romney campaign’s ability to produce
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 4
personalizing
visual frames of the nominee at the 2012 Republican National
Convention
A political image consultant’s job involves teaching the
candidate how to use visual aspects to create visual frames that
will either reinforce the candidate’s strengths or play down the
candidate’s weaknesses. Television, cable TV and the Internet
have dramatically altered the media landscape, playing a large
part in the convention shift from aggressive policy debates and
sometimes nasty floor votes intended to choose the best nominee
to nationally televised pep rallies intended to drum up support
among the party base for the presumptive nominee. (Fine, 2003;
Panagopolous, 2008) The dramatically different format has altered
the way the electorate thinks about political candidates. Voters’
attitudes about candidates are increasingly driven by personal
traits. (Garza, 2011) Over the last 80 years, the melding of
women’s’ growing influence, conventions’ growing audiences,
conventions’ drastic reduction in televised content, and a wife’s
singular ability to personalize her husband thrust the wives into
the spotlight. (Allgor, 2012; Anthony, 2012; Gutin, 2012)
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Much research has explored the effects of framing on
attitude and voting behavior. However, little has focused on the
candidate’s spouses instead of the candidates themselves. The
work that has placed candidates’ spouses front and center is
concerned with either the pop culture impact of the spouse
(Schultz, 2012) – such as trends in fashion or philanthropy - the
inherent sexism in the wives’ convention role, (Knox, 2013) or
the impact of candidate’s wives as caricatures used to bolster
their husband’s image. (Traister, 2012) This study will consider
fashion, as it is part of the aesthetic for any candidate’s wife,
but only in the context of fashion as an aspect of visual
framing. Scholars agree that candidate’s spouses play an
important role in humanizing candidates but few explore how that
is accomplished in the visual channel. This study focuses on the
utilization of visual images of the candidates’ wives as part of
a framing strategy intended to energize the party base’s support
for the candidate.
I will first review the literature, beginning with a
detailed look at modern convention format and audience reach. I
will then continue with the impact of visual framing followed by
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an exploration of the role a candidate’s wife plays in a
convention, and finally, end the review with a discussion of how
image consultants build visual frames. To analyze the
conventions’ visual content, I will place myself in the shoes of
a political image consultant for Mitt Romney. I will utilize
Grabe & Bucy’s 3 step system to first identify the salient issues
for each candidate, then to choose the 1 frame I believe will
have the greatest potential to energize the GOP’s party base and
explore how the image consultants and/or couple should have used
the Ann Romney to successfully deploy those frames. (Grabe &
Bucy; 2008) Finally, I will analyze each campaign efficacy in
deploying the frame. I will use clothing, proxemics, gesture and
gaze as measurements. Due to the length constraint of this paper,
I will analyze only one exchange between candidate and wife from
each convention. I hypothesize that Ann Romney was better able
to execute the ‘Ordinary man/Ordinary family’ frame than was
Governor Romney.
Literature Review
Convention format and reach
The American electorate watched 3 hours of convention
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coverage spread over 3 days for each party – Republican and
Democrat - in 2012. (Peters, 2012) In those 3 hours, the parties'
national committees had to put on a show that would energize the
party base and woo undecided voters – a pep rally of epic
proportion. There is no way to delve into debates over the
issues in 3
hours and due to the change in primary structure – with pre-
convention primaries deciding the nominee in time for the
convention - the purpose of conventions shifted to strengthening
the party's commitment to the chosen nominee. (Fine, 2003;
Panagopolous, 2008) One way to accomplish that feat was to put
on a show, focusing less on issues and more on the candidate’s
personal traits. (Garza, 2011) The task entails demonstrating to
the audience that the candidate is a trustworthy, devoted,
determined man capable of leading the nation. The convention is
a showcase of the candidate's strengths, full of testimonials
from worthies that are familiar to the audience – the vice
presidential candidate, key members of the party, party
leadership and of course, the candidate's wife. (Stiehm, 2012;
Shahid, 2012; Welch, 2012)
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Certainly, convention audiences – and thus the potential
impact of visual frames - are not limited to those delegates and
worthies physically in attendance – the viewership of the 2012
DNC and RNC was in the tens of millions each night. Even with
the Republican National Convention taking place in the midst of
Hurricane Isaac (Poe, 2012), the delayed presentation of the
convention's first night, featuring Ann Romney's speech, garnered
22.3 million viewers. (Associated Press, 2012) Among the
candidates and their wives - Ann Romney, Michelle Obama, Mitt
Romney and Barack Obama – the 4 hours of convention coverage
containing their speeches had a total of 114.5 million television
views. (Associated Press, 2012; Associated Press, 2012) That
number does not include the social media views and shares.
Twitter alone reported over 28 thousand tweets per second
featuring hashtags, names and phrases for the First Lady Michelle
Obama after she delivered her speech at the DNC. (Associated
Press, 2012; Colao, 2012) The potential audience of a convention
is larger than it has ever been, so the need to put on an
impactful, entertaining show is undeniable.
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The Impact of Visual Framing
The visual aspect of framing is hugely important and has a
tremendous effect on the electorate. (Graber, 2010; Mehrabian &
Ferris, 1967; Rosenberg, Bohan, McCafferty, & Harris, 1985;
Rosenberg & McCafferty, 2001; Rosenberg, Khan & Le, 1991; Lenz &
Lawson, 2011) In 1967, Mehrabian and Ferris demonstrated that
facial expression had a more significant impact on perception of
attitude than did vocal expression. Rosenberg, Bohan, McCafferty
and Harris cited a good deal of prior research when, in 1985,
they stated “the consideration of the personal qualities of
candidates plays a central role in candidate perception.
Moreover, this consideration of the candidate's character has a
significant impact on voter's preferences.” (Rosenberg, Bohan,
McCafferty & Harris, 1985) Rosenberg and McCafferty would go on
to demonstrate that differences in a candidate's physical
presentation did influence electoral outcomes. (Rosenberg &
McCafferty, 1987) This falls in line with psychological research
that finds individuals judge the traits of unfamiliar people –
such as trustworthiness - based on appearance alone. In a 2010
study, Fridkin and Kenney demonstrated that an increase in
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television coverage of a campaign makes voters more comfortable
judging candidates based on personal traits. (Fridkin & Kenney,
2010) Visual framing is particularly effective among the less
informed members of the electorate (Lenz & Lawson, 2011) as it
uses quick bursts of emotionally charged material to manipulate
attitudes. (McHugo, Lanzetta, Sullivan, Masters, & Englis, 1985)
In 2011, Lenz and Lawson demonstrated that, among
low-knowledge/high TV voters, “looking the part” led to a 4.8
percentage point increase in the candidate's favor. (Lenz &
Lawson, 2011). A research team led by Kyle Mattes out of the
University of Iowa posited that how a voter personally feels
about a
candidate may be as important as his judgment of the candidate's
competence. (Mattes, Spezio, Kim, Todorov, Adolphs & Alvarez,
2010)
The role of the candidate’s wife
Now that we live in a world where we like to see and hear
our celebrities and know that our politicians are real people
just like us, candidates' wives play the role of character
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witness, giving us a peek into the candidate's day-to-day life
and background. This humanizing effect has bumped candidate's
wives into the spotlight as the keynote speaker for the first
night of nationally-televised convention coverage. (Stiehm, 2012;
Anthony, 2012) The electorate trusts her – this woman who has
stood by her spouse through thick and thin is tasked with showing
us a side of her candidate he can't show us himself while
maintaining the dignified aspect we expect of a President. She
stands as a representation of the country and tells us about how
he provided for his family when they were young and broke, how
devoted he is, how determined and caring. She also brings
something important just by her presence – the candidate gets the
opportunity to show the electorate how he loves her through his
interactions with her. We like their love stories because, as
Allgor put it, “we assume that a man who can inspire and deserve
the trust of a good woman is someone we can trust.” (Allgor,
2012) The electorate trusts and likes candidate’s wives, often
more than it trusts or likes the candidate himself. (Allgor,
2012) So when potential First Ladies talk, we listen. (Anthony,
2012; Shahid, 2012) However, her speech is not the only medium a
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potential First Lady uses to aid her husband.
Building the frame
For campaign planners, the convention is the perfect
opportunity to formally introduce the nominee, and his wife, to
the nation and set the agenda for how the public will view him.
(Graber, 2010; Schill, 2008) A large component of that agenda-
setting mission is framing the candidate in a way that emphasizes
strengths and downplays weaknesses. Image consultants carefully
craft visual frames for both the candidate and his wife, so every
convention appearance the potential First Lady makes will bolster
the party’s support for her husband by associating her positive
frames with the candidate. (Baker, 2012; Anthony, 2012; Allgor,
2012) The specific traits on which an image consultant will
choose to focus vary by audience and occasion. Convention
audiences tend to be comprised of the party faithful, so the
purpose is to energize the party base. (Banning & Coleman, 2009;
Carroll, 2007; Grabe & Bucy, 2008)
Nelson & Boynton posited that “the persuasion (of political
messages) is in the delivery, and the delivery is in the
details.” They add that the delivery consists of flavors,
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colors, movements, musics, voices, characters, and images.
(Nelson & Boynton, 1997) For my purposes here, I am concerned
only with the visual elements that create a frame and the
Romneys’ abilities to deploy a frame using those elements. I
will analyze each interaction between Governor Romney and Mrs.
Romney on each level of visual framing suggested by Rodriguez &
Dimitrova: the denotative meaning, the stylistic-semiotic
meaning, the connotative meaning, and the ideological
representation.
Analysis
The Romney’s at the Republican National Convention
The specific traits on which an image consultant will choose
to focus vary by audience. Convention audiences tend to be
comprised of the party’s base and undecided. It’s a quite
different event than a televised debate, where faithful members
of all parties are watching. Thus, the conventions act like a
nationally televised pep rallies. They are extravagant shows
intended to boost excitement and support for the nominee among
the party faithful. (Banning & Coleman, 2009; Carroll, 2007;
Grabe & Bucy, 2008)
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Salient Issue #1 – Low Likability Ratings
The first step of Grabe & Bucy’s 3 step plan to present a
frame to an audience is identifying issues salient to the
audience. (Grabe & Bucy, 2008) Heading into the 2012 Republican
National Convention, neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama was
showing a significant lead in polling. (Saad, 2012) Although, in
the week leading up to the RNC, Romney's likability ratings
jumped to within 10 points of the President’s ratings, he still
trailed the President in likability by 23 points. (ABC News,
2012) An October 29th Gallup Poll concerned with the candidates’
greatest strengths clearly demonstrated the likability gap
between the candidates. Of President Obama’s top 5 greatest
strengths, all were character-oriented and together, they
comprised 39% of the total responses. Of former Governor
Romney’s top 5 greatest strengths, only 2 were character-oriented
– honest and brings fresh approaches. They comprised only 8% of
the total. This was a troublesome statistic as not one winning
candidate in the last 50 years won the election with a lower
likability rating than his opponent. (Saad, 2012)
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A USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted August 20-22, 2012, a week
before the RNC, found Romney’s likability trailing President
Obama’s by 23 points, 31%-54%. Voters demonstrated that while
his experience in business and government made him the stronger
candidate where the economy was concerned, his personal wealth
did not endear him to the electorate. 20% of registered voters
polled stated his personal wealth made them less likely to vote
for him. A whopping 54% felt Mr. Romney needed to release
additional tax concerns, demonstrating a prevailing distrust of
Romney. (Saad, Jones & Newport, 2012) In the same August 20-22
Gallup Poll, 36% of respondents agreed that Romney cared “about
the needs of people like you”. (Saad, Jones, & Newport, 2012)
Only 10% agreed that he was “for the working/middle class”.
(Saad, Jones & Newport, 2012)
The Frame – The Ordinary Man/Ordinary Family
Former Governor Romney needed to project the image of an
ordinary man with an ordinary family and ordinary problems. He
needed to emphasize the idea that he was a man who would care
about and fight for the average Joes of the nation. He needed to
be relaxed, comfortable and confident rather than the aloof,
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slightly-awkward candidate he had been up to that point. He also
needed to downplay his personal wealth. His wife, Ann Romney,
would be invaluable in deploying this frame – her clothing
allowed far more opportunities to turn down the degree to which
the couple displayed their wealth through fabric and accessory
choices. She would also have the prerogative in her keynote
speech, to use visual aids that emphasized the idea that, as a
couple, they were at one time broke and so understand the lives
of normal people. (Allgor, 2012)
Emphasize ordinariness. At the most basic level of framing – the
denotative meaning – a male figure approaches a female figure
from the back of the ground. Mrs. Romney wore her blonde hair
loose in a way that framed her face. She wore chunky gold
earrings and chunky gold bracelets on both wrists. She wore a
red straight-cut, knee-length dress belted at the waist with ¾
sleeves and a collared V neckline. She paired the dress with
black peep-toe heels with an embellishment on the toe. Her
husband, GOP Presidential nominee Mitt Romney wore a black suit,
black dress shoes, a white button-down collared shirt and a blue
and white diagonally striped tie. (ABC News, 2012)
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At the end of her speech, Mr. Romney approached Mrs. Romney
from a center stage ingress behind her. She turned to face him
with a smile on her face. They gazed at each other. He returned
her smile as she approached him. She rose to her toes, stretched
hands and head up to meet him for a kiss. He bent very slightly
and kissed her on the lips. They both kept their eyes partly open
for the kiss. The pair then separated, broke the eye contact and
moved their gazes to the audience. (ABC News, 2012) They then
took places side-by-side, facing the audience but continued to
hold hands. These descriptions compose the indexical attributes
of the moment. (Messaris, 1997)
At the next level of framing – the stylistic-semiotic level
– I apply gestalt theory to the images. (Barnes, 2010) Mrs.
Romney’s displayed artifacts fall into 3 color groups – gold, red
and black. Her hair, her skin and her gold jewelry at ears and
wrists frame her face and describe a circle the viewer continues
with his eyes. From right wrist to right ear, over the top of
her head to the left ear, down to the left wrist and back across
to the right wrist, the viewer’s brain fills in the parts of this
gold circle that are not actually present. The effect draws the
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viewer’s focus to her face. The arrangement of the color groups
– with black at the bottom, the long straight line of red in the
middle and the small circle of gold at the top creates a
saturation grading effect, drawing the eye up to her head where
the least saturated color is. The straight line of her body and
dress, starting at the floor, up her calves, then up her dress to
the belted waist which would stop the verticality if not for the
V neck which recaptures the vertical and continues it to her
head. The V also created an upside-down triangle on which the
circle of her head rests. The lines and arrangement on shapes in
her figure are very solid, only slightly dynamic. In another
word, ordinary.
Mr. Romney’s figure is even more ordinary still. His figure
is one long tall line of black up to his head where his hair
creates a dark circle to sit on the upside-down V shape created
by the white collared shirt. This V is bisected however, by the
straight line of his tie, breaking up the most dynamic shape in
his entire figure. The color in the tie is light blue and white
set in diagonal stripes. The color is too demure to draw much
attention and the diagonal lines do not lead the viewer’s gaze to
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a particular place.
Figure 1 depicts the pose they struck before stepping into
the kiss. The 2 figures have come within Hall’s personal social
distance, about 2-4 feet from one another. (Hall, 1968) Ann
Romney is set back on her heels a bit, the straight line of her
body becoming two legs of an obtuse triangle. Her arms create a
horizontal line perpendicular to the line of her body. Mitt
Romney’s arms continue the horizontal line that her arms began.
I imagine if I were to look at those two sections of line, I
would find that they do not create a continued line at all, but a
circle, encompassing the empty space between them.
Mitt Romney’s posture is very straight, not opposing hers to
create a triangle as one might expect. The effect is jarring.
When Ann stepped into the intimate social distance for the
kiss, she brought her body into a straight line that mirrored
his. However, she was reaching up so far to place her face within
kissing distance that the vertical lines of her neck and the
various lines of her white-knuckled fingers on his shoulder were
very pronounced. The effect was to break up the harmony of the
paired vertical lines. Also, closed eyes would have allowed the
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vertical figure lines to continue, but both Mr. and Mrs. Romney
had their eyes partially open. That served to further complicate
the harmony of the two intimate vertical figures because it
created additional lines that followed the path of their gazes,
which in Mrs. Romney’s case, was a line to his shoulder and in
Mr. Romney’s case, was a line to her face.
At the kiss’s end, the two stepped back into a close
personal distance, side-by-side. The vertical lines of their
bodies were joined together by the inverted triangle of their
joined hands. The effect was an M shape, which was very dynamic.
However, their gazes were out at the audience instead of pointed
toward each other on the same plane as the lines of the figure,
so the dynamism was less effective then it could have been.
The third level of framing is the connotative meaning.
(Rodriguez & Dimitrova, 2011) Mrs. Romney’s ensemble was truly
pregnant with meaning. She boldly chose to wear Reagan Red. It
is a bright vibrant red that puts one in mind of power and
strength. However, that shade of red is also the GOP’s signature
color. More importantly, it was Nancy Reagan’s signature color.
By wearing Reagan red, Ann Romney was strongly associating
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herself with both the Republican Party and the most popular
former GOP First Lady of the last 50 years. (The Huffington Post,
2012)
Nancy Reagan is known and loved for bringing glamour to the
White House. Sometimes, she brought a bit of trouble as well.
For example, the press criticized Mrs. Reagan harshly when she
spent $1 million designing and purchasing new china for the White
House when her husband took office. (Jones & Parsley, 2008)
Further, women can relate to that shade of red – the average
woman in America has at least one lipstick and nail polish
combination in the same bright powerful shade. It took me
approximately 90 seconds flipping through the April 2013 edition
of InStyle to find an advertisement that did so. (NutraNail,
2013) In fact, the shade is so popular that the same issue of
InStyle magazine included advertisements featuring that shade of
red in either a lipstick, nail polish or being worn by a
celebrity on no fewer than 22 pages.(InStyle, 2013) It is the
shade you wear when you feel powerful and sexy, when you want
attention.
It was quite the legacy Mrs. Romney called upon that night.
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The remainder of Mrs. Romney’s ensemble was simple so it
would not interfere with the audience’s ability to correctly
interpret the association Romney’s use of Reagan Red was meant to
make. Her hair was loosely styled, so she would not appear
uptight or matronly, but smooth, shiny and bouncy, as if she was
a picture of youth and exuberance. She wore a simple, achievable
style. She downplayed her – and by association, her husband’s –
wealth by choosing simple gold jewelry in chunky styles, rather
than the flashy, copious number of jewelry pieces to which she
certainly has access.
The fourth level of framing is the ideological
representation. Mrs. Romney’s outfit hit the ‘Ordinary Family’
frame spot on. Each piece looked like something a regular Jane
might buy off the rack. The chunky gold earrings, the simple
hairstyle and the mostly light, neutral makeup with the punch of
bright red, allowed her to appear simultaneously relaxed yet
confident and fashion-savvy yet traditional. In an interview
with USA Today, Leah Chernikoff, editor of Fashionista.com,
called Mrs. Romney's outfit “elegant and restrained”. (Puente,
2012)
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It’s easy to believe the image consultant meant to
associate Mrs. Romney with the sun - and in doing so emphasize
her power - since gold, red, and circles are all associated with
the sun. (Barnes, 2010) However, Mrs. Romney’s associations did
not end with the sun. Ideologically, it tied her to Nancy Reagan
in such an unambiguous manner, that the UK’s Daily Mail Online
reported that she was “channeling” Mrs. Reagan. (Whitelocks,
2012) That particular shade of red also speaks loudly to
patriotism and traditional GOP values, as it is the GOP’s
signature color.
The neutral counterpoint to that vibrant red found a home in
her accessory, makeup and hair choices. The balance those
choices provided gave her an opportunity to relate to millions of
American women across the country. Power and balance may seem an
odd pairing, but millions of women balance those traits in their
lives – wife/mother, work/life, and responsibility/spontaneity.
Particularly because Mrs. Romney is not a working woman, it was
important for her to relate to working women to reinforce the
‘Ordinary Family’ frame. What’s more, Americans Creating a visual
representation of a balancing act so central to so many regular
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American women was very savvy. (Messaris, 1997)
It was also a safe way to compete with Michelle Obama in the
glamour category. Mrs. Obama had 4 years to construct her
glamorous, easy-going, devoted, mom-in-chief persona. That
persona is so tied up in not only who she is, but who the
President is as a person that it would have been impossible for
60-something Ann Romney, with her awkward, slightly aloof husband
to beat. That didn’t stop her from making the attempt though.
And that in itself – that competitive spirit about fashion - is a
very regular trait indeed. That spirit drives American women to
spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on clothing,
accessories and cosmetics. (cite) 7B on makeup,
The moment of surprise reinforced the “Ordinary Man’ frame
as well. The unfeigned surprise evident on Ann Romney’s face and
his amusement at her surprise were genuine. Both the image 1
still photograph and the live stream video demonstrate that,
though of course, the live stream demonstrates it more clearly.
Ann Romney’s crow’s feet got deeper when she smiled as did the
smile lines around her mouth. As Mitt laughed with her, the extra
fold of skin at his chin grew more pronounced and he used a
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 25
toothy smile. There is little doubt in my mind, just by looking
at her reaction in that moment, that the moment was spontaneous
in some way that caught her off-guard. The moment really helped
to reinforce the ordinary frame. The assumption is that elitists
would never dare make a mistake like that on national TV and
embarrass themselves before the rest of us. Yet the Romney’s
didn’t seem to mind a bit. They enjoyed the moment, laughed
about it, embraced then moved on. (ABC News, 2012) Much like a
regular couple might do.
The kiss was unfortunately, awkward enough to negate any
positive reinforcement the previous moment had managed to earn.
The hope would have been that no one had a tight enough shot of
their faces to notice the open eyes. Yet logic argues against
the futility of that hope. As I covered earlier, the entire
purpose of the conventions is to excite the party base nationwide
about the nominee. Nothing that happens on that stage will go
unrecorded. It was an unfortunate error as the moment before had
been so helpful. But people will remember the awkward kiss long
after they have forgotten the surprise greeting and shared
laughter.
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 26
One reason for this is that negative trait – like
awkwardness - outweighs a positive one – like mutual joy. (Mattes
et al., 2009) That is especially true given the emotional nature
of images. The ideological issue springing out of an open-eyed
kiss is simple confusion. Open-eyed kissing is not something on
which the American public holds a consensus. It is just awkward.
When asked about it, Columbia University’s health center blog Go
Ask Alice! replied “Could the rest of us be missing out here
because we've been told by friends or movie stars that you're
"supposed to" kiss with your eyes shut? It's true that visual
input can also be distracting, so closed eyes when kissing does
allow for the fuller touch and taste sensations that give
smooching its mass appeal.” (Go Ask Alice!, 2013)
If any couple has had the time together to learn to be
comfortable with open-eyed kissing, it is the Romney’s, who at
the time of the RNC had been married for 43 years. (The New York
Times, 2005) But perhaps the campaign should have avoided the
confusion involved with the event by keeping the kiss more
mainstream. Certainly, not kissing on the mouth at all has long
been the route nominees and their wives have taken.
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 27
Couple the ambiguity of the kiss with the awkwardness of Ann
Romney having to stretch in such an obviously uncomfortable
manner just to reach her husband’s face and the campaign has
created a moment of intense awkwardness that undermines the
‘Ordinary Man’ frame. The awkwardness and failure of that moment
rests with the image consultant for not appropriately preparing
that moment.
Discussion
Ultimately, it is clear to me that Ann Romney is better able
to execute visual frames than her husband Mitt Romney. Her
superior efficacy is not solely because she is a better actor
than he, but because women have far more opportunities to make
connotative and ideological statements through clothing,
hairstyle, makeup choices and their character witness speeches.
First Ladies and potential First Ladies are also better-liked
than are their husbands, so their visual messages are more likely
to be well received. (Gutin, 2012)
Deconstructing the planning, implementation and execution of
visual frames has been a very interesting exercise. Future
research could search for generalizable traits that give
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candidates and candidates’ spouses an advantage in executing
visual frames. Turning the tables on the traditional sex roles
and recreating a deconstruction like this one with a female
candidate and her husband, a male candidate and his husband or a
female candidate and her wife would also be incredibly
interesting. It would open up an avenue of discourse about sex
roles in visual politics which is quickly becoming a conversation
the nation needs to be having as more LGBT public servants are
winning offices.
Images
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Image 1 (Beck/AFP/Getty Images, 2012)
Image 2 (Somodevilla/Getty Images, 2012)
PERSONALIZING MITT ROMNEY 30
Works Cited
ABC News. (Producer). (2012). ABC News Republican National Convention live
stream 8.28.12. [Web Video]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XqR3WG8yZQ
Allgor, C. (2012, September 5). What candidates' wives are
telling us. CNN.com. Retrieved from
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/04/opinion/allgor-wives-
convention-speeches
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