Bush in the Stalin Seat (link to photo)

[clover]

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/media/index.php#standing-on-the-shoulders-of-giants-026776

[bobbieinok]

1. that is a weird photo-op

[depakid]

2. Either these guys are irony impaired ... or...

They're intentionally sending a message.

Either one is plausible, I guess.

[leftofthedial]

3. basic IQ test question

which one of these is not the same?

[Minstrel Boy]

4. Without seeing the whole backdrop,

I think it's actually a photo of the Quebec Conference. Stalin didn't attend that one. It was hosted by Canadian PM William Lyon Mackenzie-King.

But regardless, I agree: it looks pretty f'd up.

[depakid]

5. The point of the matter is the imagery

The collage itself was "photoshopped" anyway-

What's staged there- intentionally or not- is "The Big 3."

That's the message a person with a little knowledge of history and half an eye for compostition gets.

[Lisa]

6. you guys beat me to it!

I saw that photo on the front page of the Globe and Mail after I got home yesterday, and thought of the Yalta threesome pic! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041201/481/hal10412011906

That entire backdrop was carefully-crafted by the White House advance team, who arrived in Halifax more than a week before the visit (which means that Bush's staff had likely settled on making his main speech in Halifax even before the folks in Ottawa knew about it). It was designed, printed, and flown up from the States -- evidently they were leaving nothing to chance (or the Halifax hosts). So Bush, like on the aircraft carrier, got his pretty pictures. The only consolation is that the Globe and Mail looked behind the curtain (although they did feature the obligatory David Frum quote about how the elaborate preparations shows how much Bush likes Canada).

Here's the Globe article about it. Based on the description, I bet they used that same Hollywood guy who staged the "Mission Accomplished" photo-op.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20041202/BUSHSPEECH02/TPNational/?query=frum




Backdrop pic with Bush:




Quebec conference archival photos (King, FDR, and Churchill):



http://www.kilroywashere.org/005-Pages/CastleFilms/05-Castle-05-25-Thru-30.html


Hey, if he's going to pretend to be one of our Prime Ministers, it might as well be the nutty one, eh?