Personalizing Mitt Romney

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


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


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

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)


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


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


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)


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.


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


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


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


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,


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)


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)


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,


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)


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


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


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


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


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.


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)


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


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


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.


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.


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


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


Image 1 (Beck/AFP/Getty Images, 2012)

Image 2 (Somodevilla/Getty Images, 2012)


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Personalizing Mitt Romney

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