What if the President's Press Secretary Had Nazi Propaganda On His Walls?

Nazism is an evil ideology, but in a pound-for-pound battle of which ideology was more murderous, Communism has to be the clear winner over Nazism. For one thing, Communism has had a longer run in more countries. Wherever it has reigned, Communism has killed. The Soviets murdered about 20 million of their own countrymen, starving millions of Ukrainians to death intentionally. The Khmer Rouge — Communists, again — murdered millions in Cambodia. Mao’s Communists murdered about 65 million in China. The Communists who won the Vietnam war murdered millions.

President Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, has Soviet propaganda hanging on the walls of his home. The one ideology that’s more murderous than Nazism. It occupies places of prominence in the home of a major American official, whose job is to deliver the administration’s propaganda, er, message.

The story in which that photo appears, in Washingtonian Magazine, has its own fawning, propagandist tone. It’s worshipful of the presidential mouthpiece. The photo itself is staged propaganda worthy of the Soviets: Look how beautiful and perfect our hearty and prosperous leader’s family is! The huge pile of pancakes on the table in the background (presumably for a family of four?), the entire loaf of bread laid out as if they’re catering continental breakfast at the local Hampton Inn, the unnecessarily air-flipped egg (which would break the sunny side, no?), and the actual propaganda on the walls behind the action — they all send out a message: Look how perfect your life can be if you find favor with the regime.

It’s lovely stagecraft. If you like propaganda.