Rey C.
Racing is life... anything else is just waiting.
That is not true. Posing in one nude shoot as a model is not a big deal, as long as nothing was showing. I am not talking about people working in porn, I am talking about a one time nude shoot.
I think it depends on the state, the party and what office the person is seeking. If you're trying to capture a statewide office in the south, as a Republican, and you have to depend on the Evangelical/fundamentalist vote, any sort of nudity might be a very big deal.
What passes for a Republican in Massachusetts would barely be a Democrat in Tennessee and some parts of Virginia. And a Democrat from rural Tennessee or Virginia would probably be too conservative for many parts of Massachusetts.
So I think it comes down to the pose itself (as you said) and how many Evangelical/Family Values types a candidate has to contend with.