White House Flickr Stream: Professional Right In, Professional Left Out

Pete Souza/White House

Still feeling the sting of Robert Gibbs’s lashing of the left, I was studying the White House Flickr set for July. (Pete Souza’s tweet today urged a look.)

Although Obama has been reaching out to the right in these photo-ops since he took office, there was something in the July group I hadn’t seen before. Where variety has been the rule, there were two very similar photos, back-to-back, offering Obama interacting with Congressional leaders, specifically GOP Senate leader McConnell.

Pete Souza/White House

You could argue that the selection and arrangement of photos in the WHFS is largely random. But then, it’s hard to ignore this preoccupation with (and patronization of) the party of “no” — especially this “double dip” with the mid-term elections on the immediate horizon.

If you do take some time to study the set from June, one more thing you’ll notice is that, with the possible exception of Whoopi Goldberg (who is actually the only one from The View who is hidden from view) — there is not a single shot featuring a representative of the “professional left.”