IMAGE RULES

Picture it. Television and movies have made us a nation, nay, a world that substitutes pictures for fact. We make stars of actors and heroes of those whose heroism exists only in their publicity releases.

Candidates have fallen in the past because of a single picture. Daddy Bush sunk Michael Dukakis with an ad showing a line of convicts leaving prison. Dukakis helped his own demise by posing on a tank in a helmet that made him look like a chipmunk.

Every day we are NOT shown battle casualties or wounded soldiers or military funerals. Every day we ARE shown pictures that the White House Republicans uses to influence our vote.

A carefully constructed news item is released to the media knowing full well the pictures the TV outlets will run with it. They can count on any mention of President Clinton to be reported while showing Monica in the rope line.

Conversely, when one of their own gets into trouble, only a brief mention is made and the media quickly buries it. If something should happen to make it news again, there are seldom any nasty pictures shown.

Karl Rove is thought to be a genius in regard to swaying voters via stunts and visuals but we know he is not infallible. For example, he didn't anticipate the flop of the much exalted carrier landing, or the mud on his face when he jokingly endorsed Howard Dean months ago.

But he never runs out of ideas. Now the plan is to make Bush into another Kennedy with plans for a NASA shot to the Moon and Mars. This would serve, he thinks, to take our minds off the carnage in Iraq. Rest assured, there will be no plan to pay for it.

Still the images will flow from the White House of senior citizens praising Bush for paying for their medicines. But this too will blow up in their faces -- most of these old geezers are smart enough to know when they are being snookered.

There have been and will be, images that last and will be used in the coming campaign, such as the staged event at ground zero following 9/11. Will we ever learn who was planted in the audience to cue Bush into saying, "We can hear you," and then going on into an obviously prepared speech.

Another they will use is Bush posed against the backdrop of the Black Hills region of South Dakota looking as if he was one of the great presidents carved there in stone.

Who can forget the posing of the Bush head against the golden seal which gave him the appearance of a saint with halo?

There are too many precious Bush posings to name them all but we must not forget to mention a recent one which has been named, "Wag the Turkey" by a foreign wit. There he is holding a tray with a huge turkey and trimmings ostensibly serving Thanksgiving dinner to the troops in Iraq.

It's been reported that the troops got their meal from serving dishes, not from the platter that Bush held. It's also been reported that the turkey was a fake. It may be so, but one of those turkeys was real.

twanda@sover.net

2003-050

Copyright 2003 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@sover.net.