Date:    Mon, 8 Jun 1998 08:49:25 -0700
<br>From:    Grant Smith <gsmith[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]EWU.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: big weekend
<br>
<br>>At 8:22 AM -0700 6/8/98, Yongwei Gao wrote:
<br>>>Dear all,
<br>>>
<br>>>
<br>>>2. Is  looksmanship  ever recorded in any dictionaries?
<br>>>
<br>>I doubt it's in dictionaries.  My suspicion is that was a nonce word (it
<br>>doesn't show up on Nexis, which started cataloguing well after the
<br>>Kennedy-Nixon campaign, so it doesn't seem to have stuck).  As the
<br>>quotation suggests, it refers to the use of the physical component of
<br>>"image" politics--control over one's appearance on TV as a key element in
<br>>winning minds and influencing elections. . . .  The term "looksmanship"
<br>>itself would
<br>>have been an analogous formation based on the then-popular "brinksmanship",
<br>>dealing with U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union during the Cold War years.
<br>>Or so I'd guess.
<br>>
<br>>Larry
<br>
<br>I would guess the analogy to be "one-up-manship," a popular phrase meaning
<br>to gain the advantage over others, especially in wit.  There was a book
<br>out, I forget the author, entitled, I believe, "The Art of Oneupmanship."
<br>-Grant Smith
<br>