And what message is the "worried Bush" image trying to convey?
"Hours after the Iraq Study Group urged a radically different approach to the war, the chief White House spokesman told CNN that President Bush may be able to 'announce a new way forward' in Iraq by the end of the year." Looks like he's got some serious thinking ahead, and he's already getting started.
But if you look closely, CNN has just cropped the "Dismissive Bush" photo into a closeup of Bush's eyes. Gone are the helplessly-outstretched hand and the overturned book. Just a man deep in thought.
Maybe they're seeing a different reality — that the President is recognizing the current strategy's weaknesses, or at least registering the public's desire for words of hope. "Baker said he and Hamilton had been 'pleasantly surprised,'" CNN writes, "by President Bush's reaction when they presented the report to him at the White House..."
Nervous Bush
(Reuters)
From deep in thought to deeply disturbed, the President's face turns away — clutching his fingers apprehensively. A cameraman catches him by surprise in a look of distracted dejction.
This picture echoes the pessimism that's evident from Reuters' lead. "The U.S. should begin to withdraw forces from combat and launch a diplomatic push...to prevent 'a slide toward chaos' in Iraq, an elite panel recommended..." And the photo utilizes a common visual theme: a wider shot showing Bush stared at by older (and often more serious) men. While this accurately conveys who was in the room, it can also be interpreted as a message from the news editors. It's either a positive message — an example of seasoned White House advisors offering counsel to a pragmatic President — or, a negative message, as the young MBA is called to task for an under-considered foreign policy. ("I said I was gonna read it! You don't hafta keep glaring at me!")
Can you really read history in a man's face — or only project it?
Not-Nervous Bush
(Reuters)
The book is overturned, face down, while Bush looks away. Maybe he hasn't decided whether he'll read it yet. This photo looks like he's still considering the back cover's blurbs. ("Spell-binding! A tour de force! — Ebony")
Article comments
1 - Steve
You forgot monkey face bush.
2 - dazey mai
Attempting to read Bushes face is like trying to read the face of Alfred E. Neuman. Jeez!
3 - nancy
Almost every time I see a photo of him, he's got his mouth open. I've seldom seen one of him with it closed; and when I have, he's smirking. Even I have concluded 99.99% of editors must be carefully selecting which images to use; surely no human being can be so... so... idiotic so much of the time, can they?
Oh, right. Sorry - we ARE talking about Dubya, aren't we? I withdraw the last comment above.
4 - Zedd
I'm confused. Do we not have televisions, you know those moving pictures that we get in our living rooms.
Bush does more live conferences than any President. I think that "stupid Bush", "confused Bush", "smirky Bush", "dazed Bush", "intoxicated Bush", "arrogant Bush" "cringesome Bush", and all of the other Bushes are not hard to see on your own without the media consipiracy (???).
Actually I am often shocked that they can come up with those presidential looking pictures because on the news conferences that I have seen, he pretty much looks lost and confused, arrogantly and high/drunk... Maybe its a right winged consipiracy to make him look compitant.
5 - Zedd
Maybe it my poor resolution but on my screen, all of the above pictures pretty much look the same... lost and confused/could be drunk.
Is it me?
6 - Elvira Black
Great stuff, Lou, on the semiotics of Bush-face.
I think you captured all his possible expressions--five in all. His economy of expresion reminds me of such acting greats as Lee Majors (should have had an acting school where you learn how to convey all possible emotions from A to B), or Ah..nold, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and so on in their heydays.
These guys were even more economical in their expressive range, forcing the viewer to project the appropriate emotion (rage, grief, bemusement, vengefulness, consternation, love) from one of two available expressions. Seemed to work to their advantage somehow.
I have to admit that when Bush displays his not-nervous face (an increasingly rare occurrence) something about it warms me to the boy despite myself. I find myself thinking: "Well, maybe he's not such a bad guy after all." But the moment--like his expression itself--doesn't last long.