Barbie, a plastic doll and American cultural icon, launched a presidential campaign this week.
Toymaker Mattel Inc orchestrated a publicity stunt to declare that Barbie, 45, was seeking the presidency on the "Party of Girls" ticket. The campaign's slogan even refers to one of the accessories that Mattel sells for the classic doll: "From the Dream House to the White House."
PHOTO: AP
The firm said that the candidate's "constituents" were consulted through the Barbie.com Web site to forge a three-issue platform: world peace, aiding the poor and homeless and taking care of animals.
"Barbie is the ultimate ambassador for girls, and this bid for the presidency reinforces the idea that it is never too soon to get involved and have your voice heard," Mattel marketing chief Russell Arons said. "With the presidential election on the front pages, the timing couldn't be better to start a dialogue between girls and their parents about women's leadership."
He touted Barbie's experiences as making her "an ideal candidate."
The biography on her campaign Web site asserts more than 90 careers held by the candidate, including: teacher, veterinarian, pediatrician, police officer, firefighter, fashion editor, engineer, television reporter and paleontologist.
In a time of war, she importantly claims service in all four branches of the US military with combat experience as an Army medic in the 1991 Gulf War (though the Web site gives the year incorrectly as 1992), UNICEF ambassador and diplomat at a US-Soviet summit.
The Barbie campaign is coordinated with the White House ``Project, a nonpartisan national organization promoting women's leadership.
"Since Barbie is such a large part of girls' lives, we believe it's important to encourage them to become tomorrow's leaders, and `Barbie for President' sends that message," said Marie Wilson, president and founder of The White House Project.
The candidate herself had no comment.
Introduced to the world in 1959, Barbie easily meets the constitutional age requirement of 35, yet shows no signs of grey in her blonde hair, wrinkles on her face or sagging and thickening on her lithe, middle-aged body. However, many of her most ardent supporters and patrons are under 18 and ineligible to vote.
If elected, Barbie would be the first woman and the first Plastic-American to win the White House.
In other political news, the major-party presidential campaigns have spent August in high gear, turning the candidates into awkward road warriors in recurring clashes across the country.
US Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination on July 29 in Boston and immediately kicked off a two-week "Believe in America Tour." Much of the circuit through key battleground states in the industrial Midwest and now in the tightly contested Pacific Northwest has been by bus and train, meant to convey a populist touch.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush, who will accept the nomination of his Republican Party on Sept. 2 in New York, has been making a parallel "Heart and Soul of America" tour.
The trips have seen Bush and Kerry shadowing each other through many states, often on the same day.
On Friday, they were even in the same town on the same day. Both made stops in Portland, Oregon, where Bush met with a group of entrepreneurs and Kerry had his own campaign rally later in the day.
On Aug. 4, both the rivals held events in Davenport, Iowa, just a few hours and a few hundred meters apart.
Bush's re-election drive was badly dented on Aug. 6 with disappointing news about US payrolls, which reinforced growing impressions of a slowing economy. Some of the damage may have been repaired this week with better economic news.
Government data Thursday on the retailing sector suggested that the summer trough in the US economy may have been smaller than previously believed. In addition, the largest US retailers reported increases in revenue and same-store sales for the second quarter.
The federal Commerce Department announced that retail sales jumped 0.7 per cent in July, and previously reported June sales were revised sharply higher. The government's estimate of the June decline in sales was trimmed from 1.1 percent to 0.5 percent.
Rising prices since May for energy and especially petrol have eaten away at disposable income and consumer spending this summer.
The gross domestic product (GDP) rose at an annualized rate of 3 percent in the April-June period. It was a respectable pace compared to most industrialized countries, but was widely viewed as a sign that the US economy was slowing after expanding for the last four quarters at almost 4.8 percent, close to a 20-year high.
Concern about the economy mounted on Wall Street and in Washington after the Aug. 6 Labour Department report of payroll gains in July of only 32,000 jobs. Most economists had forecasted an addition of more than 200,000 jobs.
Now, July's retail sales and the June revisions could defuse some of the concerns about the strength of US economic growth.
But with less than three months left before the Nov. 2 elections, the Bush campaign is still struggling to effectively communicate positive news about the economy. The latest news on Friday from a major continuing survey of consumer sentiment, in which confidence declined.
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