Someone really needs to speak to Bush's publicity people about the kinds of images that they release to the press. This picture, which I found in this morning's Washington Post, is designed -- I think-- to associate Bush with the two great 'Western' leaders of the Second World War. However, compare the effect with this picture from the Tehran conference. Bush is occupying the place occupied by none other than Josef Stalin, friend of truth and liberty and Doing Whatever Is Necessary In The Name Of The Cause, Even if That Means Sending Millions Of People To Gulags.
Perhaps not the best choice for the Bush publicity people. I wonder if this is what happens when you have an administration made up of people who do not consider themselves to be a part of the "reality-based community" -- they pay little or no attention to history either?
I continue to look for the exact image from which the mural was taken. Granted, it appears to be a picture from the Quebec Conference in 1943, at which Stalin was not present. But the image is still, to my eye, quite striking, since it creates a new Big Three -- with Bush occupying Stalin's position.
Strategic deployment of public symbols, anyone? And an ironic, deconstructive undermining of that very deployment at the moment of its articulation?
[Posted with ecto]
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