Newsweek — Swallowing GOP Attack — Positions Obama As Leftist

First of all, I take issue with the idea America is a center-right country when Bush initially sold himself as a centrist, failed to earn a clear mandate when he was re-elected (basically through the exploitation of fear), and then lost the last mid-term election to the Democrats.

More concerning the visual politics here, however….

I’m troubled by the way Newsweek places Obama between us and the flag, and how a national news mag has Obama’s back to us again (1 , 2) reinforcing the right-wing meme that we don’t and can’t really know him.

Most specifically, though, I take issue with the fact a politically centrist Obama is framed looking leftward — at the same time, in the closing days of the election, his inordinately rightward-looking competition is openly branding him a socialist.