Thank you Nick, for your most excellent post on the authenticity of the White House photo of the Commander-in-Chief shooting skeet (not shown). When the photo first appeared, Dan blogged that it would help the pro-gun rights folks more than the civilian disarmament movement (CDM). True dat. In fact, judging from the front page of today’s New York Post—a full page rendition of the snap with the headline “He’s Full of Skeet!”—and some of the comments from the CDN within, it looks as if we have another Michael Dukakis moment . . .
Readers of a certain age will remember when the Massachusetts Governor and erstwhile presidential candidate posed on a tank (behind a machine gun) to prove he wasn’t a wimp. The PR shot was so poorly received it became known as “the tank incident.” It may not have ended his campaign but it sure as hell didn’t help.
Of course, the current Commander-in-Chief isn’t running for president (again). He’s representing for the CDM, lobbying for an assault weapons ban, magazine capacity limits and universal background checks (much to the chagrin of armed Alpha Centurians). And this image ain’t gonna help him neither.
Obama mocked for releasing skeet shoot photo during gun-control debate, nypost.com proclaims—with a lot more restraint than the dead tree version’s editors. Here are some choice quotes from same:
Gun owners lampooned President Obama as Elmer Fudd yesterday after the White House released a photo — in the middle of a fierce national firearms debate — of the commander-in-chief shooting clay targets at Camp David over the summer.
While the president’s shooting skills were being mocked, his own gun-control allies privately fretted that Obama risked being ridiculed as a phony for suddenly trying to portray himself as a friend of sportsmen and hunters. Or, conversely, that he was glorifying the use of guns . . .
Gun-control advocates — while understanding Obama’s attempt to show hunters and sportsmen he’s not after their legal guns — worry that he risks looking hypocritical.
“Being dogmatic on guns doesn’t seem to work, although pretending to shoot doesn’t work, either,” said a Democratic source who requested anonymity for fear of upsetting the White House.
“At least it didn’t work for John Kerry in ’04,” said the insider to the gun-control lobby.
During the 2004 presidential race, Democrat Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, was lampooned after it was discovered he went hunting with a borrowed camouflage jacket and shotgun.
And Republican candidate Mitt Romney was mocked for saying he went hunting for “varmint.”
But Robert Zimmerman, a Democratic National Committee official from New York, praised Obama’s effort to connect with hunters and sportsmen.
“If President Obama was dressed as Rambo and holding an AK-47 in each arm, the NRA would complain that he wasn’t sensitive enough to gun owners,” Zimmerman said.
“Obama is showing that people who support gun safety respect hunters and sportsmen who want to legally own guns.”
Or not. Yup, I’m going with not.