SELF-REFUTING SPIN: The goofy Kerry NASA photos have drawn this response: “Cahill, asked by FOXNEWS whether it was a dirty trick, said: ‘Well, what do you think?’ No photos were supposed to be taken, she said.”
But if you follow the link, you’ll see Kerry obviously posing for photos. His campaign folks blew it, and now they’re only making it worse.
UPDATE: How out of touch is the Kerry campaign? A bunch of these pictures were made public on the Kennedy Space Center website. As reader David Mayer emails: “Just scroll on past the (pretty cool) MESSENGER stuff, and there’s a series of official Bunny Senator photos. It’s pretty hard not to look dumb in a suit like this; that’s why few people have them in their wardrobe. But pretending that it’s all a dirty trick is very avoidably stupid.”
“Avoidably stupid.” Not much of a campaign style. Perhaps they’ll do better. But hey, not everybody thinks it’s stupid. Reader Bill McLane emails: “What a genius this guy is! Who else would have cleverly gone for the bee keeper vote?”
It wouldn’t have crossed my mind.
MORE: Now this, on the other hand, is just wrong.
STILL MORE: Tom Maguire: “Maybe ‘the campaign’ had no idea that there would be any photographs, but Kerry must have known – what did he think was happening when the four people gathered together and smiled? Who is he smiling at in the other photos ? . . . C’mon, there are cameras everywhere. Kerry should not let his campaign manager go out and embarrass herself this way.”
MORE STILL: Reader Ted Armstrong emails:
If Kerry had any sense of humor, he’d make fun of the photos himself. If I were he, I’d put one in my speech and then have a humorous comment to say about it. It would take a lot away from his aloofness. But I don’t expect them to take my advice .
That would have been much better than lame assertions of dirty tricks.
FINAL UPDATE: Howard Kurtz has more on this story:
But Kennedy Space Center spokesman Mike Rein said a video was routinely made of Kerry “as we have done for the last 40 years.” He said NASA takes such footage because Kerry was in “a very confined and hazardous area” and that the pictures are always made public.
I thought we were supposed to be for openness in government.