Branding is the price we pay for the media we use now. It's sad but truw. Not only is it sad, but it works miserably well.

With the recent youtube spectacle in the US about the candidates. What exactly was clarified by this media flirtation?

"Should Hillary show more cleavage and is Obama, too good, a snappy dresser?" (newspeak intended)

Personally, I think it could only get solved if people had to go thru a pre-requisite of community activism, before they could run.