Dick The Lesser

There was a curiously innocuous image on the White House photo gallery yesterday.  It’s featured a shot of Dick Cheney disembarking Air Force Two in Japan.

Was it just incidental that he’s portrayed as small and distant, or that, in spite of the trappings, there’s a lack of personal welcome?  Or, is an unconscious editorial reflex at play?

After all, Cheney could soon become an even bigger White House liability if Scooter Libby gets convicted.  (For more visual tone setting, notice Dick’s expression, and the enclosing shadows in this weird shot at Tuesday’s NYT.)  Of course, the visual minimization might also relate to Cheney’s loss of pull suffered in the power struggle between himself and Bush/Rice.  And then, the anonymity could also reflect Cheney’s lack of credibility in chatting up the N. Korea deal, considering how vehemently he opposed it.

Clearly, the Administration could have portrayed the V.P. more grandly (or else, skipped him entirely).  Instead, with this “seen a thousand times” runway shot, he is featured in a new role: typical run-of-the-mill Vice President.



(David Bohrer/White House.  Tokyo, Tuesday, February 20, 2007. whitehouse.gov)