The Colors of the Candidates (2004 Debate)

I’m always looking at colors. Colors on web sites, colors of signs, colors in games, colors in movies, and so on. Color is very important, mostly as a matter of symbolism.

On 30-Sept-2004 (yesterday) I paid attention to the colors the candidates were wearing in the debate. First, I noticed that Kerry wore a red tie and Bush wore a blue tie. Why? My guess — although it is only a guess — is that since Kerry is a democrat, he wore red, and since Bush is a Republican, he wore blue. (Did anyone else think that Kerry was wearing a light blue dress shirt?)

Unfortunately, I can’t figure out why red means democrat and blue means republican. I know that political parties use colors to represent their affiliations, but I just don’t know why red is democrat and blue is republican. The connection seems more a matter of symbolism and history than any real physical or “hard” connection (e.g., red is blood).

On a final note aobut color, why do you think that the Laura Bush and Teresa Heinz Kerry both wore white? Were they both trying to display purity, cleanliness, and truth? Or, perhaps goodness, perfection, and virginity?

6 Responses to “The Colors of the Candidates (2004 Debate)”

  1. John Says:

    Did anyone else notice that John Kerry mentioned JohnKerry.com? It didn’t seem to ostentatious to me. I wonder how much his traffic bumped up because of that plug.

  2. Anonymous Says:

    FYI: Red is designated for republicans, and blue is designated for democrats, not the other way around. Which just makes it stranger the choice in tie color each candidate made.

  3. Tinuviel Says:

    To be honest I’m somewhat appalled at the choice of words for why they may have chosen to wear white (virginity???). I’m assuming it has something more to do with them trying to promote peace between the two parties after a heated debate.

  4. John Says:

    Virginity is not just about sex, if that is what upsets you. In a very generic sense, it simply means that something is pure. They could very well have pure intentions, or pure feelings. Nothing more was implied.

  5. Anonymous Says:

    FYI you’re wrong. I can never remember a time that republicans were red until 2000 when the media switched it on us.

  6. Jonathan Says:

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