Americans Haven’t Voted a Bald President Into Office in 51 Years

16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln (image manipulated)

In the November 5th issue of TIME Magazine there is an interesting article titled ‘The Bald Truth‘, which talks despairingly about the absence of a full head of hair for a presidential candidate. Not since Dwight Eisenhower in the 1950s and Martin Van Buren in 1836 has any bald man been elected to be president of the United States.

From the article — “The country’s most prolifically failed presidential candidate, Harold Stassen, ran nine times, and in many of those elections he wore a toupee so alarming that the Washington Post thought it resembled a ‘sullen possum that had been dipped in bronze.’”

The essay by Steve Rushin is well written and shows society’s strong prejudice against bald men for political office. Many other such articles back up this position on the need for hair and it is pointed out that “the last time Giuliani was elected to anything (re-elected as mayor of New York City in 1997), he had a scalp full of hair“.

Some years ago when I was doing my radio show, The Inner Man, we had a caller who was vice president of sales for a rather large company. He said that although he was bald, he would never hire a bald man for a senior position. What does that say?

Full article — TIME Magazine – The Bald Truth