23 Comments

Fascinating look at body language and women, particularly black women, in politics. I met Kamala Harris as you did, when she campaigned for President in Iowa, and I experienced her as genuine, authentic and so knowable. The NYTimes missed an opportunity when they didn’t publish this thoughtful collaborative piece. Thank you for bringing it to Substack.

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Sep 20Liked by Robert Leonard

Loved the collaborative assessment of Kamala . I imagine I can almost feel what she is thinking when I see the various expressions on her face. Since my elderly body doesn't permit to attend nearby political events which I did for decades it makes me happy to read about it.

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Sep 20Liked by Robert Leonard

This piece is truly insightful. Women in politics and political office is a huge and conflicting subject. Totally enthusiastic for VP Harris, I contrast her whole countenance with that of Iowa's Gov Reynolds, who may be best characterized as authoritarian, mean, and vindictive. For Republicans, of course, those are the very facets of personality they extol, even though they conflict with the norms of the general public.

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author

Excellent contrast with Reynolds!

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Too bad this didn't make in the NYT, but glad you published it here. Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt's work (psychology professor at Stanford University) has some general overlap with this take. She focuses on implicit biases (https://web.stanford.edu/~eberhard/index.html). I haven't thought to look until now to see if she's written anything on Harris's candidacy, but I'm sure it would be good.

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author

I'll check it out. thanks Marcel..

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founding
Sep 20Liked by Robert Leonard

Thank you, Bob. As always, when you do a deep dive you come up with a very good lesson filled with insightful thoughts and reflections.

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author

Fortunately I had a great team to work with on this one!

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Nice piece!!

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Sep 20Liked by Robert Leonard

Excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT! Thank you 🙏 You've already thought of it, BUT, I want to believe that publishing in The Washington Post might make a difference by starting some buzz.

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author

Glad you enjoyed it! I've never had any luck with the Post, but might have tried it this time but my coauthors had a colleague who had a similar take already pending at the Post, and we didn't want to get at cross-purposes with her.

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Thoughtful! Soooo, maybe I'll get banned from future posting, ... I don't know readership facts, but my contemporary go-to reads include Axios parent. The NY Times has legacy caché. The contemporary reads have quick-read, gut-punches with links to read more. Apologies if this is a no-no🙏

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Sep 20Liked by Robert Leonard

The NYT should have published it. Good article. Thank you.

Margaret

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Thanks for clearly articulating what many of us “sensed” about the debate. Great piece and well worth your efforts to get the experts together!

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Incredible collaboration 🌳

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Sep 20Liked by Robert Leonard

Tell me there is an alternate world out there, where it is Haley v. Harris--that would truly be one for the ages.

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author

In April of 2023 I wrote an article for TIME that laid out Haley's path to the nomination. It was a no-brainer. https://time.com/6273545/nikki-haley-presidential-campaign-2024/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=ideas_politics&linkId=210913299

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Robert did you ever live in the Philippines?

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author

No, but that would have been a great opportunity. I have a cousin there.

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I had a friend there named Robert Leonard. I lived and worked there for 40 years. Am now outside Charlotte NC. Keep up the good work!!

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Originally from Sioux City and Des Moines

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Can you arrange a 'return' column applying the same knowledge of your experts, but this time to Trump/Vance, using again race,gender and non-verbal expressions?

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Interesting. The collaborative analysis focused on the different perceptions of female-male and black-white verbal and non-verbal communication senders, but not on the receivers or reactors to the messangers. So, how do racial (white, black, asian, hispanic, etc), gender (men, women), gender identity (straight, LBGTQ+), religious persepctives ,and age factors of the evaluator/perceiver affect the perception of the communicator? Specific example: do older straight black women who are evangelical Christians see Kamala's performance the same as a younger female-identifying lesbian white woman? I know that bringing in all of these variables can muck it up, but the marketing people have long used these considerations in advertising designs, placements, frequency, timing, etc. It is not just the sender factors along, but how these mesh with the receiver facrtors.

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