Is the background motto thing uniquely Bush?

[w8liftinglady]

I don't remember Clinton or the others having these subliminal messages behind them.

[tanyev]

1. Oh, I can think of at least one other leader who loved to appear

in front of very elaborate backdrops.

[w8liftinglady]

4. lol...

[Lerkfish]

2. I think its visual subliminal messaging.

If there were any content to bush's message, it'd be distracting. But since there isn't, its eye candy to mesmerize the sheeple so the bullshit seeps in unawares.

[HughBeaumont]

3. Enforce the message!

I like that one myself.

[w8liftinglady]

5. or this one

[w8liftinglady]

6. or this one

[w8liftinglady]

7. ...or this

[w8liftinglady]

8. or these

http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/&/images3/2004_war_photos_3/r332025691.jpe

[Sydnie]

9. Or these

[w8liftinglady]

10. or this

http://www.theage.com.au/ffxImage/urlpicture_id_1067233330859_2003/10/30/MISSION,0.jpg

[w8liftinglady]

11. or this

[windy252]

19. I have to ask

Did Fox actually have that at the bottom of its ticker?

[w8liftinglady]

12. puke!...or this

[w8liftinglady]

13. or this

[Batgirl]

14. Transparent attempts to make the little, hollow man seem more substantial

[Lisa]

15. and feast your eyes on these ...

http://www.dubyaspeak.com/dim.phtml


Clinton did sometimes use backdrops, but they weren't as large and elaborate as the ones trotted out by Bush's people. They have taken it to a new level -- and in general, their use of deliberate "stage design", often by theatrical or Hollywood professionals, is acknowledged even by the media to be more lavish than any other administration ... see Bumiller's coverage of the aircraft carrier landing, for example. There's even a nickname for that kind of over-the-top manipulation -- "Sforzian", after the guy who's paid to do it by the White House.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

[Batgirl]

17. that is stunning

I just clicked through all 83, many of which I've never seen before, and found it to be creepy as hell. Besides being designed to conceal the fact that he has no real message, maybe the over-the-top grandiosity affords his fragile eggshell psyche a sense of security. All I know after viewing them is that no photoshopped effort can come close to the horror and humor of the real ones.

[Lisa]

18. I am just amazed by how many there are ...

... and yet, how numbingly SIMILAR they look (the wording, the grandiose font size, the persistent use of that rippling-flag effect -- like in the "Mission Accomplished" banner). And the contrived ones where they make it look like a school blackboard or a stack of packing crates or riveted steel beams ... they've gone from fake-cutesey to sickeningly hollow.

Sure, they do re-use some of them, but the amount of effort put into this is astounding -- to the point of being scary. I too am creeped out, Batgirl! It's not just the dollar cost (no doubt substantial, even if they're getting a volume discount). For instance, for this one here, which through some rare staging oversight, had Dubya appearing to sit in the place occupied by Stalin in the famous Yalta photo (actually the historic pic is from a different meeting not involving the Russians, but still ...)



This was taken during Bush's last trip to Canada -- not trusting their hosts to come up with a pleasing backdrop of their own, the White House sent a designer up days in advance, to rifle through the archival photos at a museum in Halifax ... assemble several layouts ... and then send them back to D.C. so one could be chosen, printed off, and then taken up by Dubya's substantial entourage, to be installed for him to sit in front of.

[annabanana]

16. It's part of the propaganda catapult, , , , ,n/t