Live By Photo-Op, Die By Photoshop
By Matt Rosenberg Posted in User Blogs — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
After John Kerry's Dukakis moment, pictured in a silly-looking head-to-toe clean suit and crawling forward like a bunny while touring NASA's space shuttle Discovery, his campaign is prolonging the agony. From the WaPo:
Kerry spokesman Phil Singer said Kerry was required to wear the suit. "Given the challenges facing our nation today, you'd think these papers could find something better to write about," he said.
Phil: Given the challenges facing our nation today, you'd think Kerry would find something better to do. Methinks you missed a "no comment" moment.Kerry's handlers just love photo ops, but only want the good ones. It don't work that way. My inner dime-store psychologist says Kerry's trying to convey a strong identity with all the pix because his words just confuse the issue. W., on the other hand, has no such problems.
And so we get Kerry the kitesurfer. Kerry the windsurfer.
Kerry riding a motorcycle onto the set of the "Tonight Show" (Jay Leno standing behind desk). Kerry hunting.
Kerry on his $8,000 bicycle. Kerry playing hockey. Kerry fingering a tough chord on a guitar, but looking really stiff. (JFK: see Duane Allman for appropriate guitar-playing demeanor). You've got to lay back into the groove.
Finally, there's Kerry the space bunny, thanks to inspired poster Marcus Alonzo Hanna at Free Republic.
Just stick to the half-hearted clenched-fist shots for the rest of the campaign, Mr. Kerry, and MAYBE you'll stay in the game. So long as nobody makes much of this pic: you shaking hands with Daniel Ortega.
To say Bush's words have never caused confusion is patently ridiculous.
"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country." -George W. Bush, on the Kyoto accord, April 24, 2001
I leave it to you and google to find the million more.
And I'm glad to hear Bush isn't trying to have a campaign with lots of manly pictures. Maybe then we'll stop seeing pictures of him throwing baseballs. Or hanging out with an axe. Or playing with a chainsaw. Or clearing brush on his ranch. Or driving around in a manly pickup with world leaders. Or doing it again with another world leader. Or playing dress up in flight suits before giving speeches in front of signs that make overly optomistic predictions that fail to meet reality.
And good thing there aren't any embarrasing photos either, like ones where he proves unable to operate simple machinery. Or where he displays his upside down reading technique. Or where he uses binoculars without taking off the lens caps.
Or where his secretary of defense shakes hands with a dictator AFTER the dictator gassed his own subjects, which apparently was the sole factually correct justification for an increasingly unpopular war two decades later.
Yeah, good thing it's just Kerry whose photo-op campaign is going to come back to haunt him...