Photo Op '08: Things Get Weird

It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and the Democrats are campaigning in South Carolina. Too soon to know how the photo coverage will play out, but it's hard not to see some history in these photos of Barack Obama marching in a crowd, here and here.

- This is a great image of Hillary Clinton, who went on to win the Nevada caucuses. It's so great that at least three photographers filed similar shots. The one above is by Elise Amendola of the AP. Rick Wilking of Reuters and Todd Heisler of The New York Times were there too. What makes this picture special? First, those red dresses and the red jacket. Second, cleavage. Third, you know everybody's going to read it differently depending on their opinion of Hillary.

- A similar thing can be said for the photographs of Mike Huckabee autographing the Bible. Apparently this is a recurring pattern. It even made the front of The New York Times Saturday in a photo by Yana Paskova. Some readers reacted with befuddlement.

- He won the Nevada Republican caucus, but I have little interesting to say about the photo coverage of Mitt Romney. A humor piece recently referred to him as "a generic white male Clipart character," and a blog compared him to underground cartoon character JR “Bob” Dobbs in much the same spirit. Need more? Here's Romney boarding a chartered airplane.

- Apparently trying not to be outdone by Romney, Fred Thompson buys a cigar.

- How important is Bill? Take your pick: big, or small.

- Rudy Giuliani was last spotted in Florida, on an airboat, in the swamp.

- Check out this cool panorama of a Nevada caucus by Zack Wise of the Las Vegas Sun.

- After winning South Carolina, John McCain leads our chart this week among the Republicans. In case you've forgotten he's a military man, here he is smiling at a factory that makes armored vehicles.

- It's true nobody would bet on Ron Paul being the next president, but it's a fact that he placed second in the Nevada caucuses. Yet as you can see by the volume of photo coverage he's been getting, he is still not being covered as a serious candidate. Among the minor candidates, Duncan Hunter is out, so he's no longer on our charts (below).