President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama wear 3-D glasses while watching a TV commercial during Super Bowl 43, Arizona Cardinals vs. Pittsburgh Steelers, in the family theater of the White House on February 1, 2009. Guests included family, friends, Cabinet members, staff members and bipartisan members of Congress. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Altar, Sonora
Outside the dining hall built by priests and parishoners of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe church for migrant workers seeking to cross the border, crosses remember the people who died trying to get through the desert to the other side.
Photograph by David Bacon from his project, “Transnational Border Communities.”
I’m trying to recall if I’ve ever seen Pelosi treated quite like this. Here she has the full weight of George Washington and the D.C. establishment behind her. Washington provides several metaphors simultaneously. Yes, he’s obviously got her back. He also provides a link between the past and the future, conveying both a sense of continuity and destiny. The book on the podium (conceivably a bible) adds a spiritual mandate. The Liberals will need to frame “universal” health care not only as an economic issue but also as a moral imperative. I also appreciate Washington’s open hand, a conciliatory gesture not unlike how Obama plans to guide the executive. Meanwhile, Pelosi with determined clinched fist, is now ready for the fight.
I’m looking at this image mostly from an ideological perspective but It’s encouraging to see Pelosi framed this way, from a position of authority, as opposed to this entirely different but all too common template.
Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Image, NYT
Sunday/Monday edition of Le Monde, 1-2 Nov 2008.
h/t davenoon.
Tags: Transnational Obama
UPDATE: Lesson learned. If something seems either completely uncharacteristic or to good to be true, save it immediately. The NYT removed the image as I was writing this post. I was still able to find the thumbnail, which is not helpful to my analysis. Damn, live and learn.
We need policies that grow our economy from the bottom-up, so that every American, everywhere has the chance to get ahead. Not just corporate CEOs, but their secretaries too. Not just the person who owns the factory, but the men and women who work on its floor. Because if we’ve learned anything from this economic crisis, it’s that we’re all connected; we’re all in this together; and we will rise or fall as one nation – as one people.
This has become standard Obama rhetoric on the campaign stump during the past weeks. What one senses, and consistently reads throughout the press, is that American style free market economic hegemony is over. Obama also speaks directly to “failed ideologies” and the farce of “trickle-down economics.”
This photo AP photo currency leads the New York Times online edition (approximately Sunday, 2am Eastern). Here’s a photograph which communicates far more than the boilerplate images of Wall Street long faces, Middle Class house foreclosures or plummeting stock prices. The caption reads, “Coal miners at work near Coulterville, Ill. Natural resources mutual funds tumbled in the third quarter.” This is the only mention of workers in this article about stocks, commodities, and GDP. But visually, there’s more than one story. See the secondary photograph here.
UPDATE 2: This image doesn’t come close to the original. However, I thought it was still important, if not tepid, as workers do still provide a visual counter-narrative.
The interior of the mine shaft stands in as a metaphor for the economy. Someone with mining knowledge could no doubt offer an explanation of what’s taking place. But from my viewpoint, the situation looks precarious. The artistic style of the composition reinforces a worker heroism ethos. Socialist realism comes to mind. The men could easily be proudly embracing red flags instead of mining equipment. This is not unlike a scene from a Diego Rivera. The two miners stoically hold a teetering economy, which should it cave, will bury them and the working class alive.
Photographs, Seth Perlman/Associated Press
