Mixed Metaphors From The Newswire: After "Breakthrough" On Iraq, "W" Earns A Ciggy

All I can say is: Ahh.

Doing a search on “George Bush” on the Yahoo Newswire this morning, these two military shots (particularly the first) were sprinkled throughout the thicket of presidential news conference images.  Reflecting how thoroughly the President’s stock got tied up in the war funding battle with the Dems (at least, retrospectively — and according to the White House and the MSM), the choice to float these photos plays like political choreography.

According to the caption in image one: “A US marine crosses through an opening of a wall in an industrial area during a dismounted patrol in the southern part of Fallujah.”  In image two: “A US marine smokes a cigarette at a military camp in the restive city of Fallujah.”  (The second line in both captions indicates that Bush is about to sign the legislation committing dollars to the war.)

The first image — playing the pic against today’s NYT political memo, “Winning on Iraq, Bush Turns to Immigration” — creates a heroic analogy between this G.I. pushing through the wall and the President coming through on the funding battle.  As the Times write-up alludes, however, it’s not that rubble and major cracks aren’t still everywhere, but that (citing unnamed Republicans):

…[P]assage of the spending bill now gave Mr. Bush some breathing room.



(image 1: AFP. Fallujah.  undated.  image 2: AFP/Roslan Rahman.  Fallujah.  undated.  Via YahooNews)