Who Do You Think You're Fueling?

What is sleazy about Clinton’s South Bend “fill ‘er up” photo op, featuring recruited sheet metal worker Jason Wilfing, is not his function as a prop.  It’s that the truck isn’t even Wilfing’s.

According to the LAT, the secret service rejected using Wilfing’s vehicle (perhaps, for security reasons).  Which leaves the question: what was he driving?  Absent a front license plate, is it a secret service vehicle?  Not that most photo ops aren’t duplicitous by definition, but what makes this one particularly choice, as reported, is the fact that Wilfing and Clinton drove around pretending to look for gas while leading a caravan of eight secret service SUV’s.

Of course, after they pulled into this Marathon station — the waiting photographers already perfectly positioned — Wilfing comes off the perfect owner.

Anatomy of a Hillary Clinton photo op — the pictures and the reality (LAT)

(images: Elise Amendola/AP.  South Bend, Ind.  May 01, 2008 via YahooNews)