CHARISMA VS COOL

Someone who should know -- Richard Nixon -- put it this way: "You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose." While his poetry left something to be desired, his prose was insistently present. Like so many other presidents: Washington, Adams (both father and son), Woodrow Wilson, Eisenhower, and Bush I. Each known as cool-at-the- controls. Actually, cool has grown in prestige when you think of other post-Victorian public figures: J.P. Morgan, Albert Einstein, Humphrey Bogart, the Playboy ethos, Clint Eastwood, James Bond, Gloria Steinem, Bob Dylan, Bill Gates, Mr. Spock, Google, plus all those nerds-now-become-news in American popular culture.

President Obama has lately been stuck with labels like brainy, detached, scholastic. In other words: Cool. Who's out of sync here: Obama or his critics?

But lets put aside specific names, simply stick with general nature. The general nature of the people we tend to respect these days. There will always be a place for charisma, but throughout generations of increased schooling and literacy, cool has found its own pedestal in the pop pantheon. In a world crammed with fingertip-controlled inter-continental missiles, guided drones, GPS satellites, computer banks, security networks, and genetic engineering technologies, cool sounds, well, it sounds cool.

Shamans have been replaced by scientists. High priests by automation. And even though our rockers blow the crowds away at their passionate concerts, it's the cool technology of all those amplifiers and light boards that permit them to do it.

Granted, there are still remnants of our Victorian past, our sentimental Currie & Ives image of America. Giant operations like Hallmark Cards and Disney Studios are still dedicated to charisma more than cool. Who doesn't enjoy a fluff of poetry or a cuddly Bambi! But have you ever met a Hallmark manager? A Disney park operative? These guys didn't get there by charisma. From personal encounters, I don't think there's enough charisma in any of them to melt a marshmallow.Today's eclat has changed with each new complexity.

Kids still think it's all magic. And once you get really old enough, you may try once again to believe it's still largely magic. But in between times, it's a cold world that seems to respond best to cool hands...