On the Failed Rubio – Ivanka Bot Hug
Given her meticulously-constructed public image and the way she is constantly composed, Ivanka just doesn't have awkward moments.
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Trump’s Captives: On the Pathological White House Body Language
Get ready for years of photos of people held held hostage, of Trump as the Wizard of Oz.
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Trump: Understanding the Meltdown
Donald Trump is coming apart and the largest factor in the calamity is his crippling narcissism.
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Volcanic Exceptionalism: Why America Treats Every Disturbance Abroad Like it’s Looking in a Mirror
People from the United States have been looking at South American volcanoes and seeing them as metaphors for what’s happening at home for at least one hundred and fifty years.
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Thoughts on the Suarez Bite at the World Cup … and How Social Media Swallowed Him Whole
Instead of the incident showing the player as a freak or a punching bag, it highlights America’s myopia when it comes to the world of soccer and what is happening on the rest of the planet.
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About Those Callous Selfies
I'm not prepared to say that this photo or its innumerable cousins have any moral implications at all.
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DC Missile Tow (or: A Pointed Thought on News Photos, War and Repression)
Maybe what really makes this pic of the Capitol Christmas tree, and why this particular shot was all over the news galleries on Monday, is because, after looking at photos from Gaza and Israel for a week, its easy to associate to this as a rocket launcher.
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Re-Elected
If it's easy for him to feel proud of his family, it seemed last night he allowed himself to feel proud of himself, too.
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Mitt the Real Person
I don't want to preclude the explanation that Romney is tapping into a deeper place in himself. Let's not forget, though, how much Romney's real core seems to involve sussing out what's most expedient and then being that.
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F-ing With Your Mind: What Makes the Austin "Chair Lynching" so Brilliantly Hateful
I posted this on the Bag’s Facebook page yesterday not knowing how much the discussion and disturbance surrounding it would grow. As not just an analyst of visual politics but having done my doctoral dissertation on the psychological properties of effective metaphors, I wanted to explain in a simple...
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Facing an Unfriendly Crowd Vs. Creating One: Romney at the NAACP
There's quite a difference between facing an unfriendly crowd and creating one. An analysis of the audience response to Mitt Romney at the NAACP national convention.
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Obama’s Shoulder
I do find the moment touching and believe Obama can be a comforting presence, but I think it doesn't come easy.
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Mitt's Temperature
If you've been looking closely, Mitt Romney's temperament has been a factor in the campaign all along.
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The Romney "Plastered On" Smile
Well, it's true Obama and Bush also apply public faces, but both men have more capacity for responding to warmth and attention than Romney does.
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How To Understand All Those Photos of North Koreans Crying Over Kim Jong Il
I think it's almost impossible for Americans to look at these images without believing that a citizen's sense of free will and individuality is somehow just hovering below the surface.
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Obama: Campaign Bus As Metaphor
I think people are freaked out by the bus because it's a prominent and quite overt metaphor for a President who can't be pinned down, who can't and won't be identified.
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What’s To See in the John Edwards Mug Shot
It’s not the shame-avoidant salesman’s smile that’s significant; we’ve seen that a million times.
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MIDTERM Diagnostics
In shooting down Angle, Paladino, O'Donnell and McMahon, it seems the American people -- consistently underestimated by the punditocracy -- showed they know the difference between ideology, on the one hand, and character (or psychopathology) on the other.
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