John Dickerson has a good article in Slate about the importance of photos taken with the President :

Understanding the Abramoff pictures requires investigating the absurd Washington phenomenon known as the “glory wall.” Also called the “wall of fame,” “me wall,” and “ego wall,” the glory wall is where members of the establishment flaunt their connections by displaying photos of themselves with more famous people. Lobbyists have glory walls in the office to impress clients. Staffers have them to impress other staffers. Socialites have their glory walls on the piano. Forty years ago in his novel Washington, D.C., Gore Vidal wrote: “[T]he piano’s essential function was to serve as an altar on which to display in silver frames the household gods: photographs of famous people known to the family.” For aspiring Washingtonians, the glory wall allows you to brag about conversations you never really had with the chief justice and intimacies you never really shared with the president.

With that in mind, let’s take another look behind the scenes to see how the President pimps himself out. The archives at Reflections Photography have a few of these photo ops captured and give us a good glimpse at how staged these little appearances are. My favorite of these little “intimacies that you never really shared with the president” goes like this :

“Okay, Mr President. I want the two of you to take this blank sheet of paper and act like you’re both reading it.”

“That’s great. Now I’d like you two to look up and pretend you’re having a conversation about what’s on that sheet of paper.”



“Good, good. Let’s just pose with the blank sheet of paper this time.”



“And we’ll end this by taking it outside for one last photo.”



That’s right folks, the most powerful man in the world is a mannequin. Doesn’t he have more important things to be doing?