MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: A TALE OF DEADLY PHOTO-OPS

I. 

In 1988, Michael Dukakis was the Democratic candidate for president. His adversary was George "Poppy" Bush. In a planned Dukakis photo op, the top half of the 5'8" candidate was shown facing the camera standing in the hatch of an Abrams tank. Dukakis was wearing a tank commander's helmet that looked four sizes too big for him. The image was deadly. It brought to mind Alfred E. Newman, the "What, me worry?" icon of Mad Magazine.

The photo made a laughing stock of Dukakis, and it immediately became a major piece of Republican campaign material. A poll reported 25% of the population thought less of the candidate after seeing the photograph. Dukakis was swamped in the election.

II.

In another ill-conceived photo-op, in 2003, President George "Dubya" Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, off the coast of California.

Everything about that trip was a campaign lie:

i) The White House explained Bush had been flown to the carrier aboard a Navy jet because that was the only way to get the president there. But the carrier was only 30 miles off the coast, well within helicopter range.

ii) The president did not pilot the plane, but was nevertheless wearing a flight suit in his posed pictures with the crew.  

iii) Above the president's head in the background was a huge banner hanging from the carrier's superstructure, reading "Mission Accomplished." The White House insisted it was crafted and hung there by the Navy, but press inquiries ultimately revealed it was crafted and hung by the White House.

iv) The banner was prominent in the composition of the video and stills of the flight-suited president giving a speech from the carrier's deck. Indeed, It served as the caption of the president's address in which he trumpeted the success of his invasion of Iraq: he told the American public that under his leadership, we had "reached the end of major combat operations in Iraq."

Yet in the years to follow, our armed forces suffered 34,364 dead and wounded in Iraq, and the "Mission Accomplished" banner became a millstone around Bush's neck.

The entire episode was a permanent stain on the Bush escutcheon. In the 2004 election versus John Kerry, the president squeaked by with 16 electoral college votes to spare.

III.

I have often used this space to predict Trump will be defeated in November. My rationale was not based on specific polls, or detailed analysis. It was, and is, my opinion that given the razor-thin margin of his 2016 victory, it would not take much to beat Trump in 2020, because Trump would for-sure say or do stuff to pick off his own voters. It wouldn't take many.

And now we will see in the coming months, an outpouring of Democratic campaign materials repeatedly showing how Trump had reassured the American public that covid-19 was a Democratic "hoax," that it will "miraculously disappear" in April, and a dozen similar statements demonstrating his total lack of leadership in the face of the pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 Americans.

But the coup de grace, I suggest, will be the shot of Trump standing in front of the boarded-up St. John's Church, awkwardly holding up a bible. The media will be flooded with reminders of use of military force against peaceful demonstrators in order to clear a path so the president could walk to the church for that photo op. The iconic picture of a mute Trump holding up the bible will bring to mind D.C. Episcopal Bishop Marriann Budde's harsh denunciation of Trump's "incendiary" conduct in the "charade" of using a bible and her church as a backdrop for his divisive photo-op. 

And let us not forget the scathing comments on Mr. Trump's unfitness for office offered up by his former Secretary of Defense and Chief of Staff, both distinguished generals.

Add to that Trump's out of touch, tone-deaf statements yesterday that "George is looking down right now saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country." While Trump was talking about a decline in unemployment figures, (but which actually showed an increase in black unemployment) his stunning comment that "This is a great day for George Floyd" was fairly described by Joe Biden as "despicable."

Carry on, Mr. President, mission accomplished.

A bientot.

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