Is it time to commission another Ego Study of the U.S. Senate? Our clipboards are ready.
Congratulations on your new State Department gig, Senator Kerry. Can’t wait to see your new office…
So right before the 2010 midterm elections, photographer Ilya Mirman and I embarked on an unprecedented visual data analysis project attempting to rank political egos in the U.S. Senate. The Vanity Index algorithm was based on how many times a Senator displayed a picture of him or herself on their wall and how many celebrities were in those pictures — offset by how many times the Senators promoted their home states.
It wasn’t even close. U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the keynote speaker at my University of Massachusetts graduation (oh, and the 2004 Democratic nominee for President), ran away with the contest as you can see below.
There’s still some white space on Sen. John Kerry’s office wall — still some future photo-ops to brag about.
He was the Mr. Incredible of the U.S. Senate, a title that his spokesperson shrewdly embraced. And now that he’ll be meeting world leaders 2-3 times a week, he’s gonna need A LOT MORE wall space.
Mr. Incredible: The Original John Kerry. (Double click for more details).
So check out the original Vanity Index — and let Ilya and me know if you’d like an Ego Study conducted at your company or organization.
