Photo Op '08: Pastor In Chief?

Iowa and New Hampshire: that will be all, thank you. The two early voting states decided nothing, so we now have essentially a nationwide primary. That means more money, more media, more photos.

A few weeks ago, there was a bit of hubbub when Mike Huckabee aired a Christmas ad that appeared to have a subliminal message, as the shape of a cross appeared on a shelf behind him. Nothing subliminal this week: Huckabee, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards all went to church – and made sure they were photographed there. Huckabee, Clinton and Obama were photographed speaking from the pulpit. (The photo above left, by Elise Amendola of the Associated Press, shows Clinton at a church in South Carolina yesterday.)

Obama (still battling persistent rumors/lies that he's a Muslim – we heard one again on Saturday) gets more holy treatment from the Las Vegas Sun in a photo by Leila Navidi. The backdrop: Pictures of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a handmade "Faith is great" sign. On to this week's magazines...

- Newsweek must be doing well with its candidate covers (Did you see the photos of Huckabee supporters holding Newsweek's "Holy Huckabee!" cover?) since it continues the theme this week with a portrait of Clinton by Andrew Eccles.

Time, on the other hand, now runs almost exclusively conceptual covers. Hello stock! The cover of Time's "New Hampshire Special" actually shows voters in Independence, Kansas, photographed in November 2006. It's an image by Nick Wright of The Independence Daily Reporter, via the AP. For whatever reason, Time has been saving its best photojournalism for inside the magazine.

The Economist also goes with a conceptual campaign cover this week.

- Check out the awkward body language in this picture of Barack Obama and John Kerry by Joshua Lott of Reuters. Remember Swift-boating? You can bet Obama does.

- Last week we mentioned how Obama is often photographed with his CHANGE logo. Now Mitt Romney has been seen with a similar sign, though his is red, not blue.

- Impressive: The AP's Charles Dharapak's dignified, statesman-like photo of John McCain campaigning.

- Huckabee clowns around with photographers.

- Spotted: The Ron Paul blimp!

This week's charts surveying wire coverage of the candidates are below. Bill Richardson dropped out of the race on Thursday and news coverage of Alan Keyes has been so minimal that we've dropped him from the chart, too.