Overwhelming Support

I was looking at this cover all day yesterday.  Basically, I was trying to understand why it made me feel so good. 

If you’ve been following the BAG, you know I (along with my readers and co-analysts) have spent a lot of time reading The Economist covers.  (Among the highlights, we’ve done The Iron — the thumbnail of which is over there in my third column; the iPod Mice; the Spy Flies; and, of course, the infamous Betty Boop.)  I may not care much for TE’s politics or their big business orientation.  However, I have a great respect for their understanding of the way pictures tell stories.

But, back to the "feel good" question. 

I’m sure you have had the experience of sitting around somewhere and suddenly realizing you’ve been vicariously swept up in an intimate moment between a couple, or between a parent and child.  In analyzing my "feel good" sensation, what I realize is that the sentiment isn’t coming directly from the picture.  Where it is coming from, I’m pretty sure, is from the feeling generated by the magazine for Blair. 

Now, it’s not like people out there don’t know Tony.  He may be diligent and he may have good survival skills, but he is not particularly known for his stature and his charisma has been on the wane.  That being said, to find this much charm and that little tension in such a portrait — this could only be generated from a lover’s eye.

(image: The Economist Magazine – May 7th 2005. Front cover)