Ready To Party Like It's (Not) 2000/2004

Oh, the times they are a changin’.

I’m still looking at McCain imagery, and the radical intra-party cultural contrast between Mac and Bush.

What I think is somewhat mind blowing is how completely improbable this scene might have been just a few weeks ago.  In other words, what are the chances a newswire photo of a leading GOP Presidential candidate — this one taken during the Superbowl, capturing party animals Lieberman, Graham and Gramm — would have actually been set in a bar?  Whether Phil Gramm is nursing scotch or ginger ale (and same for turn-coat Lieberman, taking a guzzle in a companion pic), the setting, and the fact you can’t tell if their “towing the holier-than-thou cultural line,” feels like a dramatic social turn.

I should add, even if these guys are politically coming from outer space, it seems gratifying to me to think one could now have a fight with one of them over — rather than about — a beer.

(image: Charles Dharapak/A.P. Hotel lobby bar. February 3, 2008. Boston, MA.  Feb. 3, 2008. via YahooNews)