December 21, 2008
Your Turn: Finding One’s Place
The most stinging shot yet on the legacy watch (especially given Obama’s affinity for Lincoln). We see Dubya’s official U.S. portrait being wheeled in to the National Portrait Gallery. (Caption below.)
(image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty: National Portrait Gallery Museum Technicians Dale Hunt (L) and Todd Gardner wheel the official portait of U.S. President George W. Bush past the portrait of Abraham Lincolin before hanging it at the gallery December 19, 2008 in Washington, DC. The portrait of Bush was painted by his Yale classmate Robert Anderson of Connecticut. The informal pose was painted from photographs taken at Camp David in April and September of 2008)
11 Comments Leave a comment
flyingshark said:
What’s to worry about? Lincoln’s hanging free on the wall of his own volition. Dubya’s strapped in tight, handlers maneuvering him around to where he should be.
janet said:
It looks like they are putting the portrait in the corner behind a potted plant, right where it belongs. I love the reds of the carpets and Bush’s face. Great shot!
Withnail said:
Anyone else notice just how utterly CASUAL his pose is? Ultimately unfitting for the office he destroyed?
DennisQ said:
I always suspected Bush was intended to be Reagan lite, while Reagan was intended to be Nixon lite. Neither Bush nor Reagan paid much attention to what their subordinates were up to, but both photographed well and looked like they were enjoying life. It will be a while until America again elects a Western governor as president.
Bush thinks history will vindicate him, but that’s certainly not a given. Reagan was president when the Soviet Union collapsed, but history hasn’t borne out the claim that he was responsible. He said, Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall when the wall was going down anyhow. Reagan is the same guy who believably said he had no idea that Iran Contra was going on.
Bush will be held to account for his economic legacy, just as Hoover was. He’ll be hated the rest of his life, and when fifty years have passed, he’ll still be held in somewhat dim regard. But to take nothing away from him, he certainly looks relaxed.
DW said:
Wish someone would’ve put him in straps eight years ago…
chrisanthemama said:
Hang that portrait upside down.
Progressive mom said:
With Lincoln’s pose suggesting a pensive waiting, I feel the caption should read: “Next up….”
Megan said:
I read the straps over the painting as the diagonal “No” slash.
EssJay said:
I’m surprised it’s not a Thomas Kinkade™
Observer in KS said:
I visually read it differently – Bush is getting moved out to make room for the new administration, but the things worth keeping (Lincoln) were staying around. I know that’s not the situation or the caption, but it’s what came to mind as I viewed the image.
sohbet said:
It looks like they are putting