ABSTRACT
The age of images has produced a new kind of ailment to worry public men: image trouble. Perhaps it has always existed, but now, like fashionable neurosis, it is more widely recognized; some of the best people have it, and it may even come to be "the thing" to have regular analysis of one's public image. Many famous Americans have had image trouble, for example, Eleanor Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, Thomas E. Dewey, Harry Truman, Henry Wallace, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller. This chapter cites two examples for more extensive consideration: Adlai E. Stevenson and Richard M. Nixon. It identifies more clearly the negative elements of Nixon's image, with the assumption that when a man acquires a definite popular image he has been typed. Though there was recognition of Stevenson's ability and intelligence, awareness of his charm was mingled, for many, with a hesitation to give him their full confidence as a political leader.
