The Forehead of Success – Are they Key to Elections?

Glancing through the various headlines on BBC news today and reading the latest Peston article on the French elections, I was struck with a unique thought – Are politicians’ foreheads deciding their success?

It appears that over the last 20 years or so, there have been some interesting trends surrounding it. If we look at the 90s, we can take a little look at John Major and Bill Clinton and the relative size of that upper-head region.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, John Major sought to eradicate a large proportion of his forehead with a seriously questionable haircut, whereas Bill Clinton displays his noggin proudly. And yet, John Major suffered an absolute battering in the 1997 election with considerable party dissent during his reign. Clinton on the other hand indulged in two relatively successful terms, ranking fairly well in opinion polls since his presidency. Skip on to the 2000s, and we find similar correlations.

Tony Blair is clearly rocking a hefty sized forehead, and won three successive general elections. Sure, there was the odd whinge from the public over Iraq and a few old lefties in his party crying out for some nationalisation like the good old days, but you can’t argue with that election record.

 

 

George Bush Junior comes in with what can be described as a “modest” forehead. A little less than Blair’s, but more than John Major’s. And this largely reflects his record. He won both his terms as President, but internationally he was ridiculed as a bit of a dumbass, with cartoons and impressionists regularly throwing the spotlight on his stupidity. So it comes out around 50/50.

 

 

If we look at the 2010 UK election, you find similar results. Under Gordon Brown Labour suffer a fairly hefty defeat, while David Cameron keeps his party fairly high in the polls considering the masses of public spending cuts slowly being unleashed on the general public (and despite a mild kicking in the local elections a few days ago). All the while the Lib Dems have received constant onslaught in the polls, with a forehead from Nick Clegg that’s quite frankly below par in comparison to Cameron’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fast track to 2012, and we have what can only be described as a mammoth forehead. Francois Hollande undoubtedly takes home a gold medal for donning a noggin of such magnitude. And what do we have here? He just beat Nicholas Sarkozy to become the next President of France. If we look at Sarkozy’s forehead, then yes it’s an acceptable size, but it quails next to the supremacy of Hollande’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now I’m not saying this evidence is conclusive. But the trends over the last 20 years or so appear to be developing. Why don’t you take a look at the Sabbs foreheads, and compare it to their fortunes over year? You might find some interesting results…