US News

EXPERT: LAZIO FINALLY ACTING LIKE A SENATOR

The third time was a charm for Rick Lazio, whose body language during his latest debate with Hillary Clinton “finally looked senatorial” – right down to the red tie and blue shirt, an expert said last night.

“It was a wonderful debate because it was a total turnaround,” said Ray McGraime, a non-verbal-communications counselor who authors bodylanguageexpert.com.

“The last two debates, he’d made major mistakes and Mrs. Clinton has been trained by the best.”

McGraime said Lazio came across as “very powerful” in the following areas:

* He was the first to smile at the end. And it was a smile “that curled at the ends, a sincere smile as opposed to a hypocritical smile that goes straight across,” McGraime said.

* “He finally looked senatorial, using open and honest gestures with his palms up and arms extended,” McGraime said. He also wore a powerful red tie on top of a pleasingly blue shirt that countered Mrs. Clinton’s calculated blue suit.

* He used a figure-four leg-cross, “a powerful thing,” McGraime said.

* “He was steeple-ing like crazy,” the expert said, explaining that Lazio’s fingers were laced to make a kind of church steeple, “a sign of strong confidence” practiced by execs and power-brokers.

For her part, the ordinarily savvy Mrs. Clinton seemed weak by comparison, he said.

* Instead of her usual “steeple-ing,” her fingers were in a prayer gesture.

“Often, she’d put her hands under her chin and rest her chin there, a sign of weakness,” he said.

* She avoided eye contact, looking down and away when she said Lazio was a nice person. And she tried to control moderator Gabe Pressman with an “accessory touch,” McGraime said.

* She turned her head back and forth in a “no” gesture when making statements she wanted the audience to believe. “That’s a deception gesture,” he said.

“This was textbook stuff,” said McGraime of the match-up.