The last week has given us lessons from both ends of the authenticity spectrum. First, Hillary Clinton, received in the New York Times Magazine her first big campaign profile of the season, and the takeaway is her perpetual struggle to show voters her “real” self. Even before her campaign officially began, Clinton labored to beat back a revival of the old criticisms that plagued her in 2008 and during her White House years: that she’s defensive and unrevealing in her public speech; that she chooses her political positions according to the polls, not conviction; that she dons and doffs personas as often as hairstyles. Hillary is, in short, the latest in a line of White House aspirants - Mitt Romney, Al Gore, John Kerry and a dozen lesser lights - with an authenticity problem.
Of course, the other big campaign “story” this week - and the scare quotes are, sadly, necessary - wasn’t about Hillary but rather the campaign’s other tonsorially challenged front-runner, Donald Trump. For weeks Trump has offered the American electorate a crash course in authenticity. Apparently intoxicated by the empyrean heights in the polls where he suddenly found himself, he has in recent days unaccountably impugned John McCain’s heroism, called several of his rivals stupid and shared Lindsey Graham’s personal cellphone number with the Internet. In case there was any lingering doubt about the showman, it’s clear now to every potential voter that Trump is nothing but himself.
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http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-and-the-authenticity-trap-120593.html#.VbaMqPlViko
When I listen to her, I hear fakery. When I listen to him, I hear honesty. He make come across as a buffoon, but at least he's an honest buffoon.
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