Buyer Beware: Political Image Can Cloud Reality

Any successful campaign strategy includes creating a positive public image for the candidate. Advertising the candidate's public policy positions is important, too, naturally. But in the age of sound bites, image often takes precedence in the minds of voters.

Take, for example, the presidential front-runners: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain and Mitt Romney. Has image overcome reality in this race?

Democrats

I described the images the leading Democratic candidates are trying to present after their debate in Las Vegas last week: Clinton a hands-on CEO and Obama an inspirational leader.

Clinton's detractors have derided her experience. In particular, many question how her role as First Lady could prepare her for the presidency. Mitt Romney, for example, said in an ad: "And the idea that she [Clinton] could learn to be president as an internship just doesn't make any sense." In contrast, Clinton has said she has 35 years of experience. Who's right?

After serving as congressional council on the House Judiciary Committee overseeing the Watergate hearings, she followed up on her legal career as a lawyer and partner of the Rose Law firm in Arkansas -- a firm not known for having female or minority partners. She was also named twice by the National Law Journal as one of the Top 100 most influential attorneys in America.

Clinton served on three corporate boards, including Wal-Mart Stores (WMT Quote - Cramer on WMT - Stock Picks) (as the first female member), TCBY (seller of soft-serve frozen yogurt), and Lafarge (LFRGY Quote - Cramer on LFRGY - Stock Picks). Furthermore, she sat on the board of the Legal Services Corp. and the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services. She chaired the Children's Defense Fund, a longtime advocate for children's issues.

Clinton cannot say she has been a CEO. But her past experience -- including eight years as an active First Lady and seven years as a New York senator -- demonstrates a vast knowledge of policy from both the private and public sector that would indicate sufficient experience to be president. In my opinion, she would not be "interning" on the job.

Obama has presented himself as an inspirational leader who can overcome the partisan divide. He has convinced one group: the fawning media. Yesterday, Gail Collins wrote in a New York Times column:

"Barack's [candidacy] is about the child of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya whose very lineage makes him the vehicle for a transcendent national unity."

The Kansas/Kenya unity theory is news to me.

But Obama has made change the major motif of his campaign, as have the other Democrats. He says his message of unity will bring the country together, unlike Clinton's or Edwards'. Obama says he can change the way Washington works by decreasing lobbyists' influence and reforming government to be more responsive to the people.

Obama's record on dealing with lobbyists is not as pristine as he'd like us to believe. Before his presidential run, he took money from both federal and state lobbyists for his Senate and state Senate campaigns. Recently he has had to change his stump speech. He used to say his campaign hasn't taken money from lobbyists; now he distinguishes between taking money from state lobbyists vs. federal lobbyists. Even worse, Obama denied that his New Hampshire campaign co-chairman, Jim Demers, was a lobbyist -- Demers lobbies for Pfizer (PFE Quote - Cramer on PFE - Stock Picks) and big pharma.

To his credit, Obama has been responsible for passing ethics legislation. He did this while an Illinois state senator, and his only piece of signature legislation in the Senate was an ethics bill.

Obama's positive message has certainly inspired, so much so that he has drawn parallels to figures like Ronald Reagan and Bobby Kennedy. In fact, he has received money from more individual donors than any other candidate in the race and has proved a tough rival for Clinton, who has a strong base in the Democratic Party.

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