Obama, the GOP and a Bookend Pair of "Pics of the Year"

It’s one thing to click through those “picture of the year” galleries for a refresh of singular events. Those serial presentations are lot less forthcoming, though, when it comes to shifts and comparisons that occurred in that span. Just thinking about the political trajectory of Obama and the Republican right wing over the past year, however (call it “the view from the tarmac”), is there a more telling juxtaposition than this?

via AP Photos of the Year 2012

(photo 1: Haraz N. Ghanbari, File caption: In this Jan. 25, 2012 file photo, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points during an intense conversation with President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Ariz. Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: “He was a little disturbed about my book.” Brewer had recently published a book, “Scorpions for Breakfast,” something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona’s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Obama was objecting to Brewer’s description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. photo 2: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File/AP caption: In this Oct. 31, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama is greeted by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie upon his arrival at Atlantic City International Airport in Atlantic City, NJ. Obama traveled to the region to take an aerial tour of the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy.)