Singing In The Rain

Singing-In-The-Rain

New-Direction-America

Let’s see what can happen when the media gets caught up in a White House spin cycle.

Forget the fact a number of prisoners killed themselves in Gitmo, or that the military investigation into Haditha was completed. Last week, the MSM treated the the Zarqawi killing like we had snuffed bin Laden; they played up the shaky completion of the Iraqi cabinet as if that government was now on solid footing; they touted a Baghdad security crackdown even as widespread violence continued; they went easy on a cynical Republican House vote designed to make the Democrats look weak on the war while providing exposure to the “cut-and-run” meme; and they intoned the “prophesy-as-fact” that Bush’s brief appearance in Baghdad — a thorough publicity stunt — somehow constituted a significant factor in a supposed policy turn-around.

Which leads us to Saturday, and these two pics.

The top shot comes from a NYT article titled: In High Spirits, Bush Takes A Campaign Spin In The West. I have to share the first paragraph with you:

Buoyed by the first good news out of Iraq in months and hints of a slight improvement in the polls, President Bush took a Western campaign swing on Friday to back up his party’s newly crystallized attack against the Democrats as wanting to “cut and run” in Iraq.

The reference to “cutting-and-running” or “running away” from the war appears three times in the write-up.

The second image appeared with a same-page NYT piece entitled: Democrats Outline A Platform for the Fall. In this case, the presentation of the Democratic platform was diminished by a concentration on politics. Here’s a key paragraph near the end:

The Democrats’ declaration comes after two weeks that have reversed a run of bad news for Republicans. The Republicans won a special election in the California Congressional district that both sides saw as a bellwether for November; and a special prosecutor investigating the leak of a C.I.A. operative’s name announced he would not indict Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, whom Democrats hold up as a symbol of Republican corruption.

I guess squeaking out a congressional race in a long held safe-district, and not having your chief political advisor indicted count for big pluses these days — even if a good chunk of your party leadership also symbolizes corruption.

So, back to image one. For an operative metaphor, how about: “Singing in the rain” ? In reality, of course, Bush has been washing out with the country taking the drenching. In contrast, the photo gives new life to the Rovian narrative, of a guy on the march who is forever innocent and thus, never gets wet.

And image two? Well, it plays on the stereotype that the Dems are terminally fractured, and lack stature besides. While Representative Hoyer outlines the platform, it seems like Harry Reid (center) either can’t give it the time of day, or even harbors some qualifications. It doesn’t help, either, that Reid — the ranking Democratic senator, seems to be completely ignored by his colleague, Senator Durbin. And, what of the banner? It’s not only obscured, the party’s “new direction” is framed by party leaders who aren’t on the same page.

(image 1: Gerald Herbert/AP. June 17, 2006. Seattle. The New York Times. p. A11. image 2: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times. June 17, 2006. Washington. The New York Times. p. A11)

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http://mdhatter.blogspot.com mdhatter

I’m amazed they don’t just Photoshop Jane Fonda into the Democrat Photo’s.
it wouldn’t be subtle, but subtlety is often lost on their audience.
good catch.
Marysz

Frank Rich writes in today’s Times (unfortunately behind TimesSelect):
” . . . the Democrats float Band-Aid nostrums and bumper-sticker marketing strategies like “Together, America Can Do Better.” As the linguist Geoffrey Nunberg pointed out, “The very ungrammaticality of the Democrats’ slogan reminds you that this is a party with a chronic problem of telling a coherent story about itself, right down to an inability to get its adverbs and subjects to agree.” On Wednesday Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were to announce their party’s “New Direction” agenda — actually, an inoffensive checklist of old directions (raise the minimum wage, cut student loan costs, etc.) — that didn’t even mention Iraq. Symbolically enough, they had to abruptly reschedule the public unveiling to attend Mr. Bush’s briefing on his triumphant trip to Baghdad.”
When will the Democrats stop shooting themselves in the foot?
PTate in MN

A fascinating pair of photos.
So, is it just my dirty mind that interprets Bush’s blowing jacket as, mmm, upbeat enthusiasism?
And on the Democrat’s image, with those hunched old men (what IS Reid doing with his left hand, huh?)..notice that the background sign has been obscured to “A new direction for A..ME…A.” Conservatives continually insist that liberals are all just about me, me, me, and here we have a photographic confirmation.
*sigh* I wonder if the histories that are written about this period will analyze all the different ways in which images of Bush portray him as the archtypal manly man.
http://cindy-sheehan.org/ Cindy

I, and anyone else with eyes, have to be skeptical that a person that had two 500 pound bombs dropped on his head would look so good in his nicely framed “death” photo. My dear friend Michael Berg whose son, Nicholas, was allegedly beheaded by al-Zarqawi had the unmitigated nerve to go on national TV and say that, no, it did not make him feel better that this person was killed because he knows that it won’t bring Nicholas back and in making al-Zarqawi a martyr it will probably only increase the violence. Violence is a cycle that can be stopped by stopping violence. Michael, who is running for Congress on the Green Party ticket in Delaware knows that our diseased democracy really killed his son, anyway.
http://www.jaxxattaxx.com/ black dog barking

In my part of the world, a reflexive-Republican agricultural state, rain is a good thing. The Decider is posturing himself as a rainmaker, quite willing to take credit for something way beyond his control.
The second shot screams Norman Rockwell, the Depression, the New Deal. We’re getting a behind the scenes peek and any backstage angle is jarring for those of us used to sitting in the audience. At the podium, in front of the microphone, one “performs”. Off stage it’s dull normal life goes on, performance has a different metric.
Robert Altman’s new A Prairie Home Companion shows this bright line between on and off stage. It is another timely nod at a nostalgic past, more Edward Hopper than Norman Rockwell.
margaret

It’s the editors who decide these themes and choose the photos to support them out of dozens of choices. Someone from the blog-journalism world should seek out those folks and interview them and put the simple question to them, “why?”
http://anonymous.com anonymous

Funny, now the media portrays our “great decider” with a honkin’ huge male member instead of the halo-like orbs around his head.
WTF is up with that?
http://www.olywa.net/cook Geoduck

Maybe I’m just projecting, but to me Bush actually looks sort of creepy; his eyes are black pits.
I do agree about the democratic picture.
lytom

Bush with the background of the cattle barriers, pardon me, the ones used to keep demonstrators in NYC neatly enclosed and controlled by the cops. He also is separated from the folks, like a rare specimen. The arms spread out like scarecrow, ready for embrace but there is no one there. Cut at the knees in despair…
Now that is just my view, NYT is incapable to lead opposition and probably never was.
Cactus

Just because POTUS is having a manic episode, doesn’t mean all’s right with the world. At least our world. Actually his face looks more like he’s crying. [To PTate: Re W's jacket - exactly my thought.]
The second photo looks like a 1940’s convention scene with all the parties arguing with each other (yeah, they used to do that) over the platform. In fact the men all look old and haggard, worn out. Maybe that is the symbol of what’s left of the democratic party. They must all know that if a democrat wins in ‘08, s/he will inherit one mell of a hess and that the papers will incessantly niggle at every thing s/he says or tries or does.
Have we not proven to ourselves by now that the NYT (and almost every other major paper) is solidly behind a republican government……ANY republican government, even this one?
DogFoNam

1st photo: bush is lost, getting rained on from everywhere and hasn’t a clue which way to turn.
2nd photo: dems are serious, with big problems to solve there is very little if anything to smile about.
This fall when all the polls show the democrats ahead by 7 to 12 points and the election is over and the repubs have won again, what will you do then?
http://areyoudressed.blogspot.com momly

Doesn’t have the sense to come in out of the rain.
jawbone

Right, momly: Or, as Garrison Keillor has said on occasion, Bush doesn’t have the sense that God gave geese.
PTate in MN

DogFoNam:“This fall when all the polls show the democrats ahead by 7 to 12 points and the election is over and the repubs have won again, what will you do then?”
I worry about this as well. Personally, I have started reading Gandhi & non-violent resistence.
http://areyoudressed.blogspot.com momly

PTate, will you elaborate on that? I am curious by what you mean and I am wondering how simpatico our vision for the future really is…
John Hartnett

momly, PTate: I’ll tell you, I am concerned about the coming elections. Someone on the internets recently said that with the past two presidential elections under a cloud, and the Executive power grab at the expense of the Constitution and the citizenry, Bushco may well invalidate the 2008 election; by suspending it, rigging it, or putting up a puppet winner. Given what has happened, this is not overly paranoid.
I am heartened by the fact that this possibility is being openly discussed.