This year's Presidential Election is supposed to be about character and integrity. That's all well and good as both party platforms are rather bland and somewhat similar in nature. If character is the issue, then perception must be its handmaiden. Thirty-second sound bites on TV doesn't give one much time to discern a candidate's character. Structured debates with Madison Avenue stylized responses also don't provide much depth of character. Many political pundits believe that Nixon lost to Kennedy in the first TV debates in l960 because of his 5 o'clock shadow (perception-he looks like one of the bad guys in a movie western or, would you buy a used car from this man?).

The media doesn't help us in discerning character, as they are fond of pejorative adjectives to describe a candidate. Did you ever hear anyone in the media refer to Al Gore as anything but "wooden." I just did the same thing! George W. Bush always manages to show that little grin. Ronald Reagan waved and smiled and pretended that he couldn't hear the question. Everyone got on Dan Quayle's case because he couldn't spell potato. Maybe his computer didn't come with a spell check program. Did any of this help us determine how any of these men would function when the chips were down?

If Lincoln were alive today, he could never get elected. He was an ugly son-of-a-gun and contemporary accounts give him a high speaking voice. He would probably fail an elocution test. However, his words and deeds spoke volumes about the man. The greatest orator of the day, Edward Everett, spoke for hours at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. Lincoln spoke for about two minutes. Does anyone remember what Everett said? Every school kid in America knows what Lincoln said, or should.

Washington looked like an old grumpus from every contemporary portrait of him. He never seemed to smile. Historians tell us its because his wooden false teeth didn't fit right. Thank God the rest of him functioned just fine as the course of history would certainly have changed. James Madison was a tiny little man who was often overshadowed by his wife, Dolly, the most popular hostess of her day. Still, he served two terms in office and got us through our second war with England even though he had to temporarily evacuate the White House when the British attacked Washington and burned it during the War of 18l2. If any country were to do that today, the perception that American honor would be forever besmirched would definitely lose the occupant of the White House his or her job. If you don't believe me, ask Jimmy Carter, and it wasn't even the White House that was attacked.

It was stated so often in the press that General Grant was a "drinking" man that even Lincoln believed the hype and said that he would send him a case of his favorite whiskey because he was a winner. In reality, Grant drank very little. Perception! He was such a popular war hero that he was elected to two terms in office even though his administration was as scandal plagued as any in our history.

The greatest hoax that any candidate played upon his public was performed by Franklin Roosevelt. FDR was paralyzed, there's no doubt about it. Yet, every picture taken of him, every newsreel shot, appeared to show a strong vigorous man standing on his own. When he talked to the nation, it was at a fireside chat where he was seated and his voice and words reassured us that everything would turn out all right if we just didn't fear that it wouldn't. There was a conspiracy of silence among the media regarding his physical condition and we elected him to a fourth term even though his health was failing and his face was ashen. As a result, he almost gave away a half of the free world to Stalin at the Yalta Conference in l945 when they were deciding how to divvy up the spoils at the end of World War II.

It's all well and good to say that this election is about character but the candidate with the most character didn't even make the cut. When all is said and done and we look behind the curtain, the wizards of hype and perception will be pulling the strings.