For all that may appear to be fun and games, it is clear that Ventura has a controlling and bullying strategy to maintain his image nationally and locally. Moore partially concedes. But we don't get any complaints specifically about any incidents. But according to Clay Steinman, a communication studies professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, the upper hand belongs to Ventura, and the effect is more subversive. Which on some levels means that Ventura's strategy has become successful.
Popularity is enhanced by inaccessibility.
Ventura has experience with fame that gives him an advantage to control his image. That gives him insight that other politicians don't have. And while Moore claims that the national press treats Ventura seriously and fairly, Steinman is circumspect. To them, he's not in politics, he's in show business. And that plays to all of Ventura's strengths, according to Verne Gagne, former owner of the American Wrestling Association, who gave Ventura his first wrestling gig in the early 1970s.