if rimmer was half smart in mechocracy for his presidential campaign he couldve used anecdotes from his experience as a soft light hologram before he got his hard light drive .. like yeah to an extent he still wouldve been pulling absolute heaps of horseshit out of his ass but technically him being a hologram still makes him a machine in a way.
like when he was exclusively soft light he had a lot less actual autonomy as a machine as he most often had to rely on holly or the scutters to holographically project/do everything for him. if hed used that it wouldve added at least the tiniest grain of substance to his campaign but he just ... never mentioned that once & just focused on slagging kryten instead