There was a photo of Barrack Obama on the front cover of The Times Magazine on Saturday. My immediate reaction, without any thought at all, was: Oh! He cannot win the election because he is going bald. He seemed to have an almost perfectly circular tonsure on his crown
On closer inspection I think it is just an effect of the light shining on what is a rather gingery patch. I guess he may have the kind of hair, common in children of mixed white/African parentage, which varies in colour, texture, length & curliness over different parts of their head
At least Obama has the advantage of being taller than McCain
When, earlier this year, I saw a photo which made it clear that Obama is left handed I wondered if that might be an ill-omen too. But a surprising number of Presidents & candidates have been
The pictures of Obama in The Times were taken by Callie Shell & the commentary is provided by Ben Macintyre. Interestingly, given my reaction to the cover photo, he twice draws attention to light:
Callie Shell’s camera is Obama’s ally. Here he is pictured bathed in light, eyes shining …
This is the main charge made by his opponents: that he looks & sounds perfect, but that he is, in the end, insubstantial, an image haloed in light, a mere celebrity, lacking the grit necessary for the job
One other minor detail. One photo shows him squatting in a stairwell. It comes as a bit of a surprise to me, given his youth spent in Indonesia, that he squats just like a westerner, up on his toes. Most people in the Third World (though not, perhaps, the middle classes) learn to squat with their feet flat on the ground. This is surprisingly comfortable, if you can learn to do it, & it is also possible to rise, Alexander-technique like without having to hold on to anything
