Is image everything?
Obama's smoking pledge an example of politicians' public personal struggles
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
PEORIA - Barack Obama is trying to quit smoking.So are millions of other nicotine-addicted Americans, but few make headlines with their struggle to kick the habit, as Illinois' junior senator did this week.
But then again, most people aren't running for president. A spotlight on the personal lives of politicians - their personal struggles and triumphs all fit for the news - is a tradition of the times.
President Bush has talked openly about his battle with alcohol and the new life he found in religion. Dethroned Florida Rep. Mark Foley checked himself into rehab after the House page scandal broke, asking the public for forgiveness and patience during his recovery.
"It's just a reflection of humanity," said Tari Renner, chairman of the political science department at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, who says he fought his own public image battle when he ran for congress two years ago. Republican opponent Jerry Weller often referred to him as "the professor," which Renner charges was done intentionally to paint him as "a liberal, a guy who doesn't like to work, that sort of thing."
In the small-town arena, politicians face perhaps a more polite audience.
But in another way, their private lives are just as much on display in a close-knit community, where you're just as likely to run into the mayor at the grocery store as you are to see him on the council floor.
Democratic state Sen. Dave Koehler of Peoria faces a different kind of struggle than Obama, but says he can relate. A vegan in a blue-collar district, Koehler often finds himself in the uncomfortable position of having to turn down dinners at events.
"It is a little awkward, but for me health is a very high personal priority and something I take very seriously, and I don't want to make a big thing of it," he said.
Koehler says his diet is only to keep his cholesterol in check, not a political statement. Still, he's never quick to explain why he picks around the edges of a meal, obviously concerned his lifestyle might not play well in the meat-and-potatoes Midwest.
State Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, who at 25 is the youngest member of the Illinois House, came to understand early on that he can't live the life of the average 20-something.
"I'm constantly reminded of (my public life) when I least expect people to recognize me," Schock said. "I'll be in the locker room at the gym and I won't know somebody and they'll say 'Hi, Mr. Schock. How are you today?'
"I'm not perfect, and there are things I have done and may do in the future that I wouldn't want on the front page of the Journal Star."
But flawed may not always be a liability.
News of Obama's smoking fixation has certainly drawn mixed reaction. Fox News host John Gibson referred to it as a "dirty little secret." But a Philadelphia Inquirer column described it as a "tactically perfect vice" and the New York Times said Obama had managed to turn it into an "expression of his imperfection."
"I think it just shows that he's human, and we all struggle with problems," said Democrat state Rep. Mike Smith of Canton. "If anything, maybe it will help him because there are a lot of people trying to quit smoking out there, just as there are a lot of people trying to lose weight."
Last year, Smith joined the growing number of politicians going public with their struggles.
In the months leading up to Smith's tough re-election battle in November, he called a news conference to announce his weight-loss plan, as he fought an image that he'd grown lazy. Politically, it worked for him, though Smith said public opinion had nothing to do with his announcement.
While it's too soon to tell if any of Obama's opponents will try to make issue of his nicotine addition, other challengers have learned that it's not politically expedient to make issue of one's personal problems.
In 2004, Andrea Zinga was nearly booed out of the 17th congressional district when she claimed that retired Rep. Lane Evans of Rock Island was no longer fit to serve because of his Parkinson's disease. Evans handily won re-election, even though his illness required him to miss several weeks of voting in Washington, D.C., and retire this year.
