Obama: Imagining The Worst Thing That Could Happen

What it looks like is that a noise caused everyone to startle for an instant. That’s not what makes it a dramatic news photo, though. Given how conditioned we are to viewing scene-after-scene of Obama electrifying a crowd, and given that this picture is circulating in the midst of the Republican Convention, with the GOP putting its best face forward and soaking up most of the media attention, what the photo speaks to is the worst political thing that could happen to the President.

Taken that way, the startle evokes the possibility that, in spite of all his energy and his smarts and his charisma and his love making with these crowds, that (the) Obama (presidency) — like someone suddenly yanking the power cord to the White House out of the wall — is going down.

Update: removed an unsettling phrase.

Via: This Week in Political Pictures Aug 20-26 (NYT)

(photo: Luke Sharrett for The New York Times caption: President Obama looked for his campaign trip director, Marvin Nicholson, while greeting supporters after delivering remarks at a campaign event at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas, Nev., on Wednesday.)