Crucial Sleeve-Rolling Moments on the Campaign Trail
George Bush Bares Arms for a Bear Signing: March 12, 2000
It’s a quadrennial question for presidential candidates: How to show he’s just a regular guy, someone voters can identify with? The answer varies, but one time-tested strategy is to roll up those shirt sleeves. Deciding when exactly to turn up the cuffs, however, can be a tough call. Here, we’ve compiled a few classic sleeve moments—times when a presidential contender has unbuttoned and rolled. Sometimes the decision is easy, as when a candidate is signing, say, a stuffed animal, as Bush is doing here.
Photograph by Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images.
Barack Obama’s Pick-and-Roll Shirt: May 4, 2008
Sports of any kind, except perhaps winter events, call for short sleeves. Here Obama plays basketball at an Indiana elementary school.
Photograph by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.
George H.W. Bush Unbuttons in a Vineyard: May 31, 1992
This presidential arm-baring, on a tour of California’s San Joaquin Valley during Bush’s re-election campaign, was in vain: He won only 37 percent of the popular vote in the November election.
Photograph by David Ake/AFP/Getty Images.
Al Gore’s Forearms a Hold Hungry Child: Aug. 29, 2000
Candidates often roll up their sleeves in an attempt to lend an otherwise boring event an air of casual-Friday excitement. Gore is pictured here at a health-care roundtable in Albuquerque, N.M.
Photograph by Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images.
John Kerry’s Quasi-Gun Show: Sept. 4, 2004
Firearms are rarely more dangerous than when used as props in presidential-candidate photo ops. It was probably smart for John Kerry to roll up his sleeves here, at a stop in Edinburg, Ohio, but critics still assailed him for his lack of ear or eye protection.
Photograph by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.
Bill Clinton Realizes It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here: July 22, 1992
Sleeve-rolling can be a crucial mid-summer move. Pictured here with Hillary at a St. Louis campaign rally, Clinton probably rolled up his sleeves in an attempt to cool off. It didn’t seem to work.
Photograph by Tim Clary/AFP/Getty Images.
Howard Dean Rolls Sleeves, Electrifies Crowd: Jan. 19, 2004
What voters remembered from Dean’s concession speech in West Des Moines after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses was not his bare arms but his impressive vocal range.
Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
Rick Santorum’s Got a Good Arm: Aug. 9, 2011
It’s always a bonus when a candidate can show off his regular-guyness while also burnishing his wholesome-family-man image. Here Santorum plays catch with his son during a campaign stop in Iowa.
Photograph by Scott Olson/Getty Images.
Rick Perry’s Forearms Scare an Onlooker: Aug. 15, 2011
Either the girl on the left isn’t a fan of the rolled shirt-sleeves look, or she’s pro-choice and a big fan of Social Security. Either way, Perry may want to keep his sleeves down the next time he is in Iowa.
