In Cameron Crowe's movie "Singles," a twenty-something male hesitantly approaches a  twenty-something female in a club.  He says hello and then launches into the following bit:

"My friend and I have this argument, and here it is.  He says when you're
at a place like this ... you can't just be yourself, you need an act."

"So anyway, I saw you standing there ... so I thought,
A: I could just leave you alone; B: I could come up with an act, or C: I could just be myself.

"I chose C.  What do you think?"

She glances at him and responds:

"I think that--A: You have an act ... and that--B: Not having an act is your act.

Hillary Clinton is a comb-over.  She's a pick-up line; a used car salesman in a a plaid sports jacket [notwithstanding the lack of gender neutrality--but, sales person just seems a beat off]; your embarrassing single fifty-ish uncle that shows up to Thanksgiving with a convertible sports car and a too young girlfriend.

The fact is, Hillary Clinton is a cliche.  We've seen her act. We're tired of it.  We're ready to move onto something new.

Whether or not Barack Obama is more genuine, that fact is he certainly seems more genuine.  Barack Obama's act is that he has no act; sort-of a calculated natural-ness.  And it's partially the reason he will be the next president of the United States.  

Barack Obama is the balding man that shaves his head rather than trying to hide his baldness with a comb-over.  And the truth is, they are both affectations.  It's certainly debatable whether one is more fundamentally honest than the other. 

And, on some level, I have a begrudging respect for someone that's willing to pull a 'Benny Hinn' and just sweep it over from the top of their ear [Side Note: it's never good for your political viability when someone can drop a Benny Hinn reference on you].

As a charter member of the balding shaved heads' brigade, the point is to give off the appearance of being carefree; indifferent to the balding.  We want to show everyone that we're comfortable enough with ourselves that we can own our hair loss on our terms.  But, it's still an affectation.  More importantly, it's still an attempt to alter how others' perceive us.  It's Barack Obama.

Come on, if I had my druthers I would take a Mitt Romney head of hair any day of the week [as long as I don't also have to have a son named Tagg].  However, the 'play it off as if I don't really care about going bald', shaved head bit works because it's still new enough.  It hasn't become a cliche.  It's my version of "not having an act is your act." 

Yet, there is no doubt that it IS an act.

All of which leads me to wonder: there had to be a point in time when the comb-over was new; when somebody, somewhere thought it was a good idea and others followed. 

It wasn't ALWAYS a joke.

Barack Obama is new.  He's a balding man's shaved head; he's a no-haggle car dealership; he's 'I don't really have a line, but I wanted to talk to you.'  Maybe we'll get to a point where those things become cliches as well.  But, that time is certainly not now; and, given the choice between two relatively similar political agendas, I'll take the relatively new and refreshing candidate over the tired, cliched candidate anytime.