Mr. Lincoln's Beard

Dear Mitt Romney

You are one of the Republicans who most often beats or equals President Obama in polls that are asking who voters would be most likely to vote for, one-on-one against Obama, in 2012.
You are also one of the few Republicans who has an appreciable level of support from all groups within the GOP. And, you are popular with independents, a group that will in all probability decide the outcome of the 2012 presidential election.

When I watch you on TV, I admire your position on most issues, and I feel sure you can explain why your great gamble into public health care as Governor of Massachusetts failed to deliver the expected results. Perhaps, it is even to your advantage to have tried it, because now you have a much better understanding of what will work and what will not work. That could be important for the future of federal ventures into the health care arena.

Certainly, your business experience will serve to protect America from intellectuals and academicians who have no practical experience but plenty of untested ideas to fob off onto innocent Americans.

But, Mr. Romney, I would like to take you back 150 years to Mr. Lincoln.

The thin-faced and pockmarked visage of the tall and lanky lawyer and former Congressman from Illinois received gentle criticism from a 12-year old girl. Her letter to him, possibly, is what ended Mr. Lincoln’s clean-shaven days. The little girl from Westfield, New York, named Grace Bedell, promised to get her brothers to vote for Lincoln if Mr. Lincoln grew a beard. She insisted that he “...would be much improved in appearance, provided you would cultivate whiskers. You would look a great deal better as your face is so thin,” young Grace wrote, “All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.”

The letter was dated October 15, 1860, written before the November presidential election, and Lincoln replied to it immediately on October 19th, “As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affect[ta]tion if I were to begin now?” He was reportedly so amused by the letter, that he carried it long afterward to make a joke of himself.

But, Mr. Lincoln heeded the little girl’s advice and grew a beard - a beard that became the hallmark of Abraham Lincoln and distinguishes his face for the world even today.

Now, Mr. Romney, I’m not asking you to grow a beard. I don’t think it would suit you. But, have you ever considered changing your hairstyle? I think something a little less lacquered and more modern, with perhaps a bit of grey at the temples, would become you. It would lighten your appearance and give you a more human touch, less like an ad for Pantene. And it might win over the undecided.

It worked for Mr. Lincoln. Why not for you?