Opinion: Once, presidential politics always involved hats, but less for McCain and Obama

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As everyone knows, history is really all about the hats.

Pope hats. Cardinal hats. Soldier hats. President hats. Our personal favorite is the 19th century Prussian helmet with the pointless pointed spike on the top. (See below.)

As always, The Ticket is gonna be honest with you. The main reason for us to publish this item is the photo here, the best hat of this 21-month-old presidential campaign.

It’s being worn for some reason by Roger Stone, a longtime Republican political operative who once reportedly got a GOP spy hired as Hubert Humphrey’s campaign driver when he was running against Richard Nixon.

These days Stone is offering himself up as a talking political strategist for journalists to consult.

But Stone’s chapeau -- he appears to have just returned from oppo research in Kenya -- got us thinking about the demise of the presidential hat.

Time was, pretty much everyone wore hats. Presidents. Their wives too. Can you imagine Abraham Lincoln, at 6-4 the tallest president, also wearing a top hat? Any 19th century NBA team would sign him immediately.

Now, it’s rare to spot presidents or candidates in hats. John McCain wears his favorite Navy baseball cap often, but that’s to keep the sun off his pale Celtic skin.

Barack Obama, the famed Hawaiian ranch hand, tried to wear a cowboy hat during the primaries but wisely gave it up. And now pretty much sticks to White Sox and Bears caps.

We’ve collected a few presidential hat photos on the jump here; just click on the Read more line. Pass your cursor over each photo to see the caption.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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