Caption this ! NYTimes Front Page Photo of Bush

[kentuck]

Yes, it looks like Abu Graib prison but it's a Bush campaign stop! For real! Look at those bars! Are they begging for gruel or do they want to touch their hero??
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http://www.nytimes.com/pages/pageone/scan/index.html

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. Please sir, can I have another??

:hi:

[Rose Siding]

2. They have a little problem with this blurb on the website

They may catch it and fix it but here's how it reads now

http://nytimes.com/

Sleepy August Is Waking Up to Campaigns
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
and ROBIN TONER 1:47 PM ET
President Bush's advisers plan to turn attention away from his record in Vietnam to what they describe as an undistinguished and left-leaning record in the Senate.
• Complete Coverage: The 2004 Campaign

[LittleApple81]

3. Here is the picture by itself. Bigger but easier to caption?

[kentuck]

5. Thanks, LittleApple !

Much better! What happened to chain-linked fences??? These look like prison bars to me. What are they afraid of?

[Journeyman]

6. Unfortunately, it's also a powerful campaign photo. . .

on the front page of "America's Newspaper" taken only some 24 hours after the close of the DNC.

[kentuck]

8. Do you think it is a positive for Bush ??

I fail to see how anyone could anything good in the photo??

[Journeyman]

15. This is a prototypical American campaign photo. . .

the outstretched hands, the smiling candidate (who's uneven lighting hides his usually dopey look), one excited citizen climbing over the fence to get to him, another unseen admirer holding out a book for the candidate to sign . . . what do you see in this image that is not something positive? People behind an iron fence? Holy hell, man, there's been a fence between this people and its president for decades now. One of the most powerful pictures I have in the schmaltzy JFK tribute my mom purchased in '63, The Torch is Passed, shows Kennedy pressing the flesh over and through a chainlink fence at Dallas Airport that sad morning.

What about this picture is not a powerful image? The stark lighting gives it an immediacy totally lacking in the other shots on the page, the skewed camera angle imparts movement and excitement, the almost desperate clutch of the "faithful" denotes an adulation with which other "adorers" are sure to identify.

Oh, sure, I could sit here at my computer, smug with complacency and toss off idiotic one liners, but the reality for the "faithful" will remain, and images such as this will resonate with them.

[kentuck]

18. Maybe?

But with this secretive and lying Administration, I cannot envision how even Repubs can see as much 'excitement' as you mention....

[Journeyman]

23. You're looking at this through your and my eyes. . .

and its easy to see the negatives when viewed from our perspective, with our base of knowledge. I'm trying to see this picture through the eyes of Shrub's supporters -- and more importantly, the eyes of the undecideds -- and from that vantage point, it's easy to overlook the flaws we know are there, the discordancies that ring so hollow, and instead to see only the image Karl Rove wants to impart. And unfortunately, image amounts for far too much in what passes for debate in today's telegenic world.

[belle]

26. Shrub's supporters don't read the NYT, though, in general...

And however it's read, I strongly suspect that the intent of the photographer was not to be particularly flattering.

[izzie]

29. I am sure it is why it was in the NYT. Just showing the picture does it.

------

[izzie]

28. I have friends that were just in front of Clinton and no fence.

I almost got to him my self and some large man pushed me aside but he was just 3 feet away.Clinton used to run out in the open. I think it goes back to Jan of 2000 and some thing happened. Bush is not at ease with the people. We keep hearing DC looks like a city at war. Something odd was going on in DC on Jan 20 of 2000. It was on c-span but you could not really tell what was going on. It was just something wrong.

[izzie]

27. No -----------

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[sadiesworld]

10. Do you really think it is powerful?

I think it is almost grotesque. * is a "man of the people"? I would cringe if this were a Kerry pic.

[Hoping4Change]

21. I too think it grotesque. Powerful only in a negative way.

[nostamj]

20. hey! I just saw DAY OF THE DEAD

on Sci-Fi... isn't this a still from that flick

of course, if they're looking for BRAINS... they're gonna go hungry!

[LTR]

4. See? This is what happens...

... when lots of people stick their arms in the monkey cage.

[LittleApple81]

7. LOL! that is good!!!! You know what monkeys like to do? Throw their

poop at you when they are upset.

[Gin]

9. Prisoner G.W. Bush meets the other inmates who will be his new roommates.

g

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. Bush: "Vote for me in NOV, my captive minions! MWUHAHAHAA"

It's what came immediately to mind! :shrug:

[ScreamingMeemie]

12. Let's compare and contrast the differences in campaign style..check these

out...





What a difference, eh??

[scarface2004]

13. snake?? snake plessking??!!

i thought you were dead!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. "I get that a lot!"

[kentuck]

16. "Play Folsom Prison!"

:)

[Sparkly]

17. "President puts his life on the line greeting potentially dangerous voters

"Despite bars, the fearless leader risked his life; Rove applies for Purple Heart on Chimp's behalf for hangnail aggravated by handshaking"

[SoCalDem]

19. vs. Kerry rally

Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), D-Mass., center left, is greeted by supporters at a rally at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., Friday, July 30, 2004. (AP Photo/Daniel Shanken)

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. A world of difference. Thanks for posting this photo.

[NJCher]

24. impact first, interpretation comes later

You're looking at this through your and my eyes. . .and its easy to see the negatives when viewed from our perspective, with our base of knowledge.

I couldn't disagree more. When some objects are viewed, the emotional language is so powerful that it overwhelms the perception. An example would be the Statue of Liberty. That is precisely why political cartoonists use it--because it strikes such a chord.

Because these are emotional images, the "gut feel" takes place before any intellectual processing. The above bush campaign pic is an example of an image that takes intellectual processing before one can make sense of it.

The sight of bars is another one of those emotional symbols. Just do a Google search and you'll come up with dozens and dozens of pictures like this:











So to summarize, what I'm saying is that the picture hits on an emotional level first and that it is interpreted as prison bars. After one studies it a bit, it becomes apparent what it is.

It's hard to see what the republicans could like about this photo and I think a photographer and a photo editor are poking at the chimperor here.


Cher

[Kazak]

25. "A Bush in the hand is worth two birds in the...er wait a minute."

:shrug: Bad, I know...