Your Brush Cleaner-in-Chief Hard at Work
I saw the above shot of Bush on 9.11 at Newsweek via firedoglake.
It apparently shows Bush explaining to Cheney what happened earlier that day, with Cheney respectfully listening, so he can get up to speed. Bush seems to be miming the planes that flew into the World Trade Center towers. Obviously, that’s my interpretation, he could showing Cheney how to do the Macarena. History will be a blank slate on this score.
I do know this: After reading “The Pet Goat” at an elementary school, Bush spent the rest of 9.11 on Air Force One. Dick Cheney spent the day monitoring events from an undisclosed location, from where we might suppose the above photo was shot later on in the day.
Bush landed back in DC late on 9.11. So, I’d have to guess that the photographers were brought into the situation room late that night, and took some shots for documentary purposes.
Now, if you’ve never done a press shoot, here’s how it works. The photographer warms you up with a couple of posed shots, and he or she knows they’ll probably be throw-aways. Then they say: “That’s was fantastic. You’re a natural with the camera.”
Then they do the real shoot. “Mr. Vice President, the camera loves you. Hand on the chair, glasses off, the ladies like it when you take your glasses off, Mr. Vice President, okay that’s really sexy. Okay, now turn to the side… No, I’m not trying to hide what some people call a ’snarl’, it’s just that your profile is so handsome. And we’ll button our jacket, and look even more handsome. Oh, my god, are you dating anyone, ’cause you are just too handsome.”
“Now you, Mr. President, oh look, the camera loves you, too. Unbutton your jacket, so we can see your abdomen. Oh, my. Have you been working out? Now, your hands, Mr. President. When the camera sees your hands plastered onto the sides of your face, some people might read that… No, I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just that you’ve got such masculine, presidential hands. Now, hands off the side of our face. That’s right. Hold them up in the air. Now, pretend your leader of the free world.”
