The Ladies Man - How Charm, A Silver Tongue, And Understanding Women Won The Female Electorate Hands Down

Langston Barry had been attracted to women from a very early age.  He was in love with Mrs. Thomas, his English teacher, a woman of class and cultured beauty. It was hard for Langston to pay attention to conjugations and syntax when Mrs. Thomas taught, for all he could think of was her.

He was too young to imagine anything more - he was only in the seventh grade - but he sensed that something far more lay behind her Lanvin and Arpege. 

 

He peered over the top of the stairs when his mother had formal dinner parties, and watched as her beautiful wimen came through the front door.  Sybil Bernstein, was his favorite, a woman of Middle Eastern beauty, a princess of a Sultan's harem, a wife of Solomon or Saul.  

She wore diamonds in her hair and emeralds in gold pendants and bracelets.  Her low-cut dress was inviting. Her make up highlighted her cheekbones, gave her eyes mystery, and her cheeks a glow.  She was magnificent. 

Langston was not just drawn to older women.  Nancy Blythe who sat next to him in math class wore sleeveless blouses in the Spring and left the top button unbuttoned. The light breeze blowing through the classroom windows, mixed the scent of the lilacs, wisteria, and apple blossoms from the orchard across the road with her own. 

 

Algebraic equations added up to nothing. Nothing added up to anything except the impossibly desirable Nancy. 

This precocious appreciation of women was but a preamble to the real story of Langston Barry, but also the foundation for his success.  A man who truly loves women - their femininity, their sexuality - and understands their needs, will always have women who love him. 

The sexual equation is not a difficult one to solve.  Women are irresistibly attracted to men who find them interesting, beautiful, and worthy, men who have a confidence that derives from that understanding; men who know that they do not have try to seduce women, for they have already been seduced.

Women's natural, biological reluctance to mate until their partner has been thoroughly vetted - a man with a profession, from a good family, with solid earning potential, and a significant inheritance - disappears when they meet a man like Langston Barry.  No amount of prestige, respect, or promise can trump that profound understanding of them as women.  

Thanks to all of which Langston was never without a loving, desirable partner.  Yes, he was fortunate to have Great Uncle Foster's Hollywood looks.  Foster was an Errol Flynn lookalike and family history had it that he was not unlike the screen idol always surrounded by beautiful young women; but good looks for women who were attracted to Langston were only the frosting on the cake, nothing more.

So, it was natural that Langston was drawn to politics.  Why shouldn't the natural allure that attracted women, that dissolved their reticence, and made them pliant, complaisant lovers, be as effective in electoral affairs?

He found that after speaking at workplace gatherings, community affairs, and ceremonial events, women gathered around him, eager to know more about him.  The art of conviction came easy to him, and he was a natural at weaving intimacy, interest, and appeal in everything from mutual funds to urban development.  There was something so genuine about his appeals, so considerate and promising about his manner, that women lost sight of substance.  

The head of the Republican Party of Ohio, a canny kingmaker who had supported successful candidates for office from school board to Senate, saw the political potential in Langston, and approached him with an offer to join him in the upcoming Congressional campaigns in the state. He did not have to be a rabid partisan, but a reasonably convinced voter, and his natural ability would do the rest. 

'Speak to the women', the political impresario unnecessarily reminded Langston. 'They will get our man elected'; and so it was that Langston Barry, unschooled in politics and the policies of the party became the most important and influential campaigner on the campaign trail.  His name was rarely mentioned by the press, for his speaking engagements were low key and he was a virtual unknown; but these appearances were held to standing room only crowds, each member of which told ten others were had not attended; and before long, Republican polls were in uncharted territory. 

It was not long before the Party deemed him worthy of his own electoral campaign, and decided to groom him for a seat in a wobbly district whose incumbent had become increasingly crusty and disliked.  The speeches, appearances, informal gatherings, meet-and-greet assignments he had willingly undertaken as a volunteer were excellent warmups for the next round.

Langston was not sure about politics.  As a spokesperson, he was fine, unencumbered, and richly rewarded.  He had his pick of the women who found his appeals irresistible.  He had been right from the beginning - women's natural attraction to him thanks to his honest charm and simple interest in them had easily transferred to politics - and he profited from both. 

In fact the more lovers in this credulous crowd he had, the more other women wondered what it would be like to be with him.  Another truism - women, rather than put off by a man with numerous lovers, want a) to see what the fuss is all about; and b) to tame him, corral him, and harness him. 

So in a political sense he worked both sides of the aisle - his natural appeal to women gave him political currency, and that currency afforded him new lovers, whose love in turn became the currency for more lovers and more political appeal. 

Why should he trade this in for serious Washington politics?  He had a good professional job, made even more profitable thanks to his new visibility.  He was provided generous perks and entitlements as recompense for his political efforts, and he had the pick of any of the Republican women gathered to hear him speak. 

He demurred, and insisted that he was better suited for being a behind-the-scenes man, a loyal operative helping others further their political career. 

Besides which, thanks to his public acclaim and newfound general appeal, he - like thousands of politicians before him - had profited mightily.  Investors were eager to invest, lenders happy to extend their courtesies, and before long Langston had made millions through the creative financial instruments, credit swaps, and innovative investment partnerships made popular by Jeffery Skilling and Enron, which had come under intense SEC scrutiny for a while, but emerged again in new, legal garb. 

'What could be better?', Langston thought, watching the sunset from the bougainvillea-filled terrace of his home on St. Bart's, 'and I did nothing to get it'. 

Yes, Langston was one of the fortunate ones, the ones endowed with a natural sense of appeal to women, a simple, basic understanding of their needs.  They were no complex equations to solve, no differential I calculus, no imaginary numbers and reverse algorithms.  Plain, simple beings, that was all; and it was amazing how many men still struggled with figuring them out.

'Ahh....', sighed Langston sipping the last of his pina colada. 'Women, can’t do with 'em, can't do without 'em'.  He signaled the boy for another drink, set his glass down, and said, 'Nonsense. I can do with both’.