Joe McNamara V Omar Sharif

I have to admit that reading this Toledo Blade article this morning gave me quite the chuckle.

You may have seen him on local television news, or on one of those 30-second campaign infomercials. No, that wasn't a young Omar Sharif of Doctor Zhivago fame - a thick head of dark hair with good looks to spare - that was Toledo City Council candidate Joe McNamara.

Now I like Joe, and I do agree he is attractive but Omar Sharif? Sorry Barbara Hendel but you are dealing with a huge fan of Omar Shariff including Dr. Zhivago which I've watched enough to have worn out two VHS versions and now have the DVD version.

Here is Omar Sharif:



Here is a recent picture Miguel took of Joe:



Now if we give Joe a Mustache:



I'm still not feeling the whole Omar Sharif thing. I've never voted for a candidate on the basis of his or her looks, I'd like to believe most of us are not that shallow that it would matter. As an all in fun fluff piece the Blade article was entertaining, and it is true that a component of a campaign is packaging the candidate. After I met with Richard Cordray, my thoughts were not "man is he hot", it was "he knows his stuff". Ben Konop is another one that friends and some of my daughters feel is "hot" but he's more than just looks as well.

Joe is more than just his looks too, which is why I'm not taking the article that seriously. If I did, then I'd have to go into the whole shallowness of placing looks above what is inside. Of how too much pressure is put on our children, especially our daughters to make them believe that they have to look like models, that they all have to be a size 2. I'd have to go into the whole increase in plastic surgery because people seem to feel that what is on the outside matters most.

While I know Joe can take me picking on him using the above photos, I'd also then have to get into what would bother me most of all if I took this seriously. The fact that what I do know about Joe personally is he is the last person that would judge another person by their looks alone. But then again I'm not taking this seriously...

:-)