Worth a thousand words
By Wolf Blitzer
CNN
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President Bush arrives aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Thursday.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This has been a week of incredible images on television. President Bush landing aboard a Navy jet on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is one of those images we will remember for a long time. Whatever else happens during the Bush presidency, this picture will stand out -- as does the president's post-9/11 visit to Ground Zero in New York City when he spoke to rescue workers over a bullhorn.
Like all of his predecessors, President Bush and his aides understandably try to project the most favorable images. In recent years, there almost seems to have been a competition to out do earlier presidents and create "the-mother-of-all photo-ops." Having covered the White House, I know top aides spend huge amounts of time preparing the background and setting for various presidential appearances and speeches.
Former President Bill Clinton wanted everyone to remember that historic photo taken on the South Lawn of the White House in 1993 when he signed the Oslo Peace Accords with then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat. But many more people probably will remember that subsequent picture of Clinton greeting Monica Lewinsky in a rope line.
The same is true for former President Jimmy Carter. He had that memorable Camp David signing ceremony with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978. But the following year, the U.S. Embassy in Teheran was taken over by Iranian revolutionary militants -- leading to 444 days of Americans being held hostage. That image of frustration and rage stands out in many people's minds.
Many believe former President Ronald Reagan was the champion of staged photo opportunities. His aide, Michael Deaver, is credited with staging many of those brilliant moments. Who can ever forget Reagan's forceful declaration in Berlin when he told the then-Soviet leader: "Mr. Gorbachev -- tear down this wall." That was a moment to remember.
In this day of television, the pictures are powerful.
By the way, there were other dramatic but often conflicting images this past week, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's visit to Baghdad. He declined to describe it as a victory tour, but it certainly had that flair. Unfortunately, that image came just as we saw disturbing pictures from nearby Fallujah where U.S. forces clashed with Iraqi civilians.
Another important image of the week: the swearing-in of a new Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and the hope that this will help jumpstart peace negotiations with Israel. But here, too, there were the pictures of another Palestinian suicide bombing in central Israel followed by another Israeli strike against Hamas militant targets in Gaza.
