Ann Althouse calls them Drudgtapositions; she’s had lots of fun analyzing the subtexts and semiotics of Drudge’s photos and headline juxtapositions. The cropping of the photo that’s currently up on the Drudge Report is particularly fascinating: Obama, walking away, back to the camera, ready to board the helicopter off on yet another vacation and/or fundraiser, with word “United” above him. Is Drudge saying that America is united in seeking the president’s defeat or his resignation? He’s walking towards the left; like Carter, he’ll be free to rhetorically move even further to the left once he’s out of office. The image certainly recalls Nixon’s final walk towards Marine One, and the final “V For Victory” (or was a hippie-style peace symbol?) on his way towards his post presidential-life:
The thought of Obama resigning? The thought of Obama as Nixon? Heaven forfend!
Related: “Will Obama Be Primaried? Ralph Nader Believes So; A Former Obama Supporter Hopes So.”
A general principle in long-running comic strips (i.e., the kind that have a plot rather than the joke-a-day kind) is that when the characters are making progress, you show them facing or moving towards the right side of the page. When the characters are suffering a setback, you show them facing or moving towards the left. There’s a subconscious part of the brain that says “movement towards the right of the page is progress”, ingrained at an early age when we learn to read. (Of course, in Hebrew or Arabic-speaking countries, you’d reverse that and show progress by movement towards the left of the page).
Given that fact, the choice of photo is even more interesting.