The Obama Picture Controversy (Joe)

We've all seen it.  We've probably all seen the video, which clearly shows that there is -- or should be -- no controversy.  More entertainingly, to my mind, is how it created yet one more great opportunity to mock Ann Althouse for being a moron.  Or, you know, an intellectually dishonest right-wing hack.

Comments

[Ruchira]

So, is she or isn't she a right wing hack? Or are you saying that Althouse's reputation is now so well established in the blogging world that one needn't bother revisiting the matter?

As for the photo itself, I must point out that I had not seen it. The still photo does make it appear as if Obama is looking at the young woman's backside. But the video seems to tell a different story. If Obama WAS looking at her, he would have turned his head in her direction, at least for a moment or two, as he was stepping down and she going up. Instead, he keeps looking down to his right, focusing on the hand of another young woman whom he helped down the steps. It is more clear where French president Sarkozy's mind was, however. He leans back around Obama and follows the well endowed young lady with approving eyes. And what does that prove? That we have a saint for a president and the French have... well, a "Frenchman" for theirs?

[Dean C. Rowan]

I don't get it. Aren't all photographs controversial? Shouldn't they be?

[D]

Whether or not Obama was staring at this woman, Sarkozy probably was, and I really can't bring myself to think differently of him for it. Before this week he was a politician, centre-left by European standards but comfortably to the left of Obama, which is where I place him now. Except in rare instances I'd much rather we kept away from demanding great personal virtue from politicians.

Why the furore any case? There's discreet peeking on the one hand, and in-your-face, threatening ogling on the other, and it's obvious to anyone who cares to examine the video footage that both these politicians were comfortably on the right side of that line. Frankly, I'd find it hard to believe anyone who insisted s/he'd never done the same on numerous occasions. That we can freeze-frame analyze these peoples' every move shouldn't make us think they're droids immune to the ordinary human passions.

[D]

Brain fart. I meant center-right of course.

[Dean C. Rowan]

Moron the photo at DK. Being a devoted antiocularcentrist, I have trouble sorting out the differences between "what actually happened" and what Fox aired. But I understand DK's point, which recalls the trial against LAPD officers who were caught on video beating Rodney King. The defense purportedly dissected the video into discrete instants, no one of which showed a wrongdoing. Ergo, no wrongdoing. If that's so, then only sheer incompetence would let that one slip by. It's a case of the Sorites paradox, as here with Fox.

But I ask again, why do we credit photography for accurate depiction of anything?

[Joe]

Althouse is definitely a right-wing hack. One of the more annoying ones, in my opinion. I thought the video pretty clearly cut in one direction, and her insistence on rejecting that in favor of the still photo tends to support my disdain for her opinions.

As for the actual subject matter at issue, I really, really don't care who the president was or was not checking out.