A Cautionary Tale: LBJ, Guns, & Butter

“How Not to End Another President’s War (L.B.J. Edition)” by Robert Dallek

from The New York Times

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The Thousand Faces of George W. Bush

He plans to look in the mirror.

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”

A Photo Series, 2001-2008

“The traveling pool of press photographers that follows presidents includes representatives from three wire services — AP (The Associated Press), AFP (Agence France-Presse) and Thompson Reuters. During the last week of the Bush administration, I asked the head photo editors of these news services — Vincent Amalvy (AFP), Santiago Lyon (AP) and Jim Bourg (Reuters) — to pick the photographs of the president that they believe captured the character of the man and of his administration. There are overlapping pictures — of the president with a bullhorn at Ground Zero, of the president looking out the window of Air Force One over New Orleans, of the president receiving the news on the morning of 9/11. It is interesting that these pictures are different. They may be of the same scene, but they have different content. They speak in a different way. (The photos are reproduced here with their original captions, unedited.)

“Vincent Amalvy (AFP), who started his job a couple of years into the Bush administration, is struck by the uncommon access Americans have to our head-of-state. His selections include shadows, reflections, the unexpected things that happen in an image — the president’s own shadow flanking the seal of the United Nations, the shadow that accompanies Bush and Barack Obama on a walk into the Rose Garden. Santiago Lyon (AP), on the other hand, speaks of the ways in which presidential images are scripted and posed, how very little is left to chance. Jim Bourg (Reuters) has selected images that showcase his fascination with odd juxtapositions and found moments of great emotion.” Written by Errol Morris.

from The New York Times

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DB notes:  Sometimes even the stagecraft of the American presidency cannot transcend the man who is actually president. A riveting series of photographs of President Bush with accompanying commentary and dialogue from White House pool photographers about the context for each picture. He was never ready for the job.

Also, update on my post from December 30, 2008, “Iceland Is What…?”:  Iceland’s government collapsed today. Iceland’s Prime Minister Geir Haarde announces the immediate resignation of his government in the wake of his country’s dire economic crises. Read report from the BBC.

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