Which is to say, Joe might not be handsome, but he projects decency and integrity with a physicality that is striking in the same way extreme beauty strikes you. He projects this decency in a manner that I suspect he would agree is completely disproportionate to his actual integrity and decency; it is a quality he would call “an angle” that he can draw upon or “play” in negotiations. And his acknowledging this gulf only adds to the sense that he is fundamentally sound—grounded, even—about his foibles. It all meant that, within minutes of meeting him, I liked Joe quite a bit. But I also didn’t
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