Jack Engelhard Jack Engelhard’s classic international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal, which later became a worldwide hit movie, has been republished to meet readers’ demands. His other major works include Compulsive: A Novel, his award-winning post-Holocaust Montreal memoir Escape from Mount Moriah, plus Slot Attendant: A Novel About A Novelist. His website: www.jackengelhard.com More from the author ► Jack Engelhard’s classic international bestselling novel Indecent Proposal, which later became a worldwide hit movie, has been republished to meet readers’ demands. His other major works include Compulsive: A Novel, his award-winning post-Holocaust Montreal memoir Escape from Mount Moriah, plus Slot Attendant: A Novel About A Novelist. His website: www.jackengelhard.com

I liked him better when at least he was true to himself, which is an angry old Bolshevik with a perennial chip on his shoulder, always with the scowl.

Yes, the scowl – so positively Soviet and appropriately Stalinist.

Then the table-pounding anti-Zionist who calls Netanyahu a racist, and has nothing but hugs for his embraceable Ilhan Omar.

Enough to terrify even the two or three sensible Dem voters on the chance, G-d forbid, that something like that could become president.

But suddenly, Bernie Sanders got himself a haircut and bought himself a smile…as if now we are to believe him to be a second coming of John F. Kennedy, who had a terrific smile. That’s because JFK was handsome, a war hero, a patriot, a warrior against communism, a defender of Israel, and so his smile came to him happily and naturally. Read this.

Bernie is none of those things. He is a phony and his smile is phony and the smile, with the haircut, makes it worse.

Makes him too eager to please; whereas before, it was take it or leave it, this is who I am. That performance was better.

At Tuesday’s debate, he dropped the act for a while, was back to being grumpy, and was beaten up by Elizabeth Warren.

Got him on whether a woman can become president…even, we suppose, and judging from the applause…even if she is a habitual liar.

Of course, they are all acting. The only question is who’s doing it better, and which phony, Joe Biden or Elizabeth Warren, or Bernie, to name the top three in the polls, puts it over best…better than the rest. You say it’s politics, and I say I agree. But it is also about being rehearsed, two-faced and hypocritical without getting caught.

Or put it like this – how many Americans are ready to buy either of them as fit to be president of a township bowling league, never mind President of the United States?

All three are selling radical socialism, or some form of government takeover of all our individual rights.

Does it help when they smile?

Do you choose a particular car because the salesman got a good haircut?

But it’s not just politicians who catch media fever.

Something happens to people when they show up on TV once too often…and then think of themselves as celebrities. Better yet, Celebs, ready for their Page Six close-ups.

For the anchors, say Bret Baier, or Tucker Carlson, and reporters, like my favorite, Mollie Hemingway, yes, appearance is part of the job. It is television after all

(Nothing can help Chris Wallace, Juan Williams, Jessica Tarlov or Marie Harf.)

Old School newspapermen, as told in this book, used to tidy up ridiculously for the cameras.

So then come the guests…grungy old generals, scruffy old lawyers…I’m thinking of one in particular…dowdy old professors, whom we liked or tolerated as they were.

Until somebody takes them in hand and says, “Hey, you’re now a star. Shapeup.”

So, they do, and suddenly, the authenticity is gone. Next day, here they are, showered, clean-shaven, hair trimmed, teeth-capped and here comes something brand new.

Here comes the smile…which we never saw before, gladly.

Yes, make-over, to make themselves more presentable, but as it turns out, less believable.

Personally, I want my “experts” grumpy, teeth yellow and ties crooked, so long as they are for real. Einstein with a haircut would have ruined everything.

It is okay if acting is your business and being attractive comes with the territory. George Clooney, okay.

In the Old Studio Star System, first thing they did was cap your teeth, change your name, and truck driver Roy Scherer becomes movie star Rock Hudson.

But Bernie Sanders is no heartthrob. He and the rest of his Party need a makeover that fixes a problem far worse than skin deep.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He wrote the worldwide book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal,” and the authoritative newsroom epic, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” followed by his coming-of-age classics, “The Girls of Cincinnati,” and, the Holocaust-to-Montreal memoir, “Escape from Mount Moriah,” for which contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com





















