A Tale of Two Candidates
Kos has a nice juxtaposition of a pair of images from last week’s campaigning in Portland, Oregon: Compare and contrast: Bush and Kerry rallies.
Again, it’s hard to be sure, with both sides doing their best to obscure reality, but I think there’s a real difference here. Bush’s entire presidency has been about working very, very hard to maintain the illusion that he is qualified for the job. They’re still doing that, and it’s still working about as well as it ever did, at least for those willing to suspend their judgement in the name of ideological predisposition.
But Kerry’s campaign is something different. It’s actually the real thing. Or at least, behind the artifice that they also bring to the task of portraying their guy in the best light, there’s an actual groundswell of support, and real excitement, and big (actually, huge) crowds. If you look at those two pictures, and assess them in the context of the hundreds of other similar pictures (and descriptions) that have been floating by of the two candidates’ campaign events, the difference is really quite striking.
It will be interesting to see if and when the mainstream media take note of this difference.
