In my opinion, last Sunday’s Argentine presidential campaign`s first debate was a bore. For several reasons. On the one hand, it wasn’t a “debate” in the strict sense of the word. No interaction whatsoever. The speakers didn’t even look at one another. On the other hand, they sounded as if they had learnt their scripts by heart. Really poor “standup performers”. They seemed more inclined to rag on one another than to announce their future policies if they happen to win the election.
It was quite interesting to analyze their body language, though, their gestures, far more eloquent than their words. Alberto Fernández and his index finger reminded me (once again) of Neil Simon’s comedy “The Sunshine Boys”. The one-time vaudevillian team “Lewis and Clark”, was asked to revive one of their famous routines, although they had actually hated each other for ages. One of the reasons was that one of them kept “fingering” the other one on the chest during their act, till he actually bruised him for good. A reminder: whenever CFK delivered one of her long and frequent TV monologues, I noticed that she was always “fingering” the audience or the clapping subjects that surrounded her, with her right hand index. Personally, I’ve always found that gesture of hers annoying and irritating. It looks admonitory, threatening, patronizing, as if she were warning us, or scolding us. Well, Alberto Fernández, the candidate appointed by CFK, did exactly the same thing all along the “debate”, not pointing at the audience but at Mauricio Macri. Bad taste. Worse manners. Birds of a feather, flock together…
Published on Buenos Aires Times