Photo Op FAIL Of The Day: International Not-So-Much Diplomacy Edition

Yesterday in New York, President Obama posed for a photograph with an International Open Government Partnership event:

The gentlemen who was blocked is apparently a representative from Mongolia.

FILED UNDER: Humor, ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Boyd says:

    I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there!

  2. mantis says:

    The photo is quite amusing, and so is the wingnut overreaction to same.

  3. Jeremy R says:

    Hundreds of photos from pool photographers representing three wire services and that single zoomed-in shot is significant?

    A couple of others from that from that same group photo session:
    http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fnh4Yq6JZ64V/1000x.jpg
    http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/06A41Ag2bN3jd/1000x.jpg

  4. Not Likely says:

    Stupid post is stupid.

  5. An Interested Party says:

    Wow, after seeing those other photos, it’s obvious Doug is really scraping the bottom of the barrel…I guess it is tiring to go after Sarah Palin so much…other targets must present themselves…

  6. Moderate Mom says:

    Hi Mom!

  7. Jay Tea says:

    @Not Likely: You misspelled “president.” Got the first letter right, but went downhill from there…

    J.

  8. Andy says:

    This should be the photo contest photo!

  9. It is an amusing photograph, to be sure.

    But in regards to some of the political reaction that @mantis mentioned, it astounding to me as to the degree to which people don’t understand (or fail to be honest about) photography. At an event like this a remarkable number of photos are taken (heck, several each second are taken). As such, the odds of capturing a specific moment of time that is embarrassing, amusing, or just plain odd are quite high.

  10. Neil Hudelson says:

    @An Interested Party:

    It was just a funny picture. I don’t think Doug was posting it as a statement on Obama’s foreign policy bona fides.

  11. rodney dill says:

    @Andy: good possibility

  12. rodney dill says:

    leave it to the moonbat left to underreact to Obama sticking his hand in someone’s face, since they didn’t even mind it when their previous guy in the oval office stuck his penis in someone that wasn’t his wife.

  13. mantis says:

    @rodney dill:

    leave it to the moonbat left to underreact to Obama sticking his hand in someone’s face, since they didn’t even mind it when their previous guy in the oval office stuck his penis in someone that wasn’t his wife.

    Ladies and gentlemen, an OTB front pager. Brilliant.

  14. @rodney dill:

    leave it to the moonbat left to underreact to Obama sticking his hand in someone’s face, since they didn’t even mind it when their previous guy in the oval office stuck his penis in someone that wasn’t his wife.

    Seriously?

  15. rodney dill says:

    @mantis: Thank you, thank you, I’m here all night, try the veal.

  16. rodney dill says:

    @Steven L. Taylor: Not really, its a pretty funny picture. I just couldn’t resist ripping on Mantis’ attempt at misdirection.

  17. mantis says:

    I just couldn’t resist ripping on Mantis’ attempt at misdirection.

    Pointing out the context of the photo that is the subject of the post is misdirection?

    Get a dictionary, fool.

  18. rodney dill says:

    @mantis: The picture, regardless of how serious or official it is, makes Obama kind of look like a dork. Your attempt to draw attention toward what you call the rights overreaction is misdirection. Maybe you should get a dictionary and try to comprehend it, instead of labeling others as foolish.

  19. mantis says:

    The picture, regardless of how serious or official it is, makes Obama kind of look like a dork.

    I agree.

    Your attempt to draw attention toward what you call the rights overreaction is misdirection.

    Talking about what others are saying about the subject of this very post is not misdirection.

    Maybe you should get a dictionary and try to comprehend it, instead of labeling others as foolish.

    At least I’m familiar with the meaning of the prefix “mis-.”

    I do understand it gets your panties in a wad when people point out how stupid your brethren are, but your attempts to make me out to be some threadjacker only reveal your own insecurities.

    Or, like most wingnuts, you just can’t resist constantly talking about Bill Clinton’s penis. In the year 2300 wingnuts will still be obsessed with it.

  20. rodney dill says:

    Who@mantis: Who was it exactly in the comments talking about the rights reaction before your comment?

    …and still resorting to the reliance on personal attacks? That is the hallmark of you and your brethren. You lost any moral high ground with the tenth word of your first comment.

  21. rodney dill says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    As such, the odds of capturing a specific moment of time that is embarrassing, amusing, or just plain odd are quite high.

    Though there does seem to be a concerted effort at times to mainly publish the amusing or embarrassing pictures, such as this one with Obama, others are:
    – Bush with ‘Brat’ over head at Bratislava
    – Cheney with ‘retire’ over his head
    – The Bachmann corndog picture
    – The Dukakis tank helmet picture
    – John Kerry in the baby blue clean suit at NASA.
    – George H.W. Bush throwing up under the table

  22. @rodney dill: It seems to me that all you are pointing out is that it is pretty darn easy to find embarrassing/amusing/odd photos of public figures–and that in the era of digital photography and the internet this trend only grows.

    If I can come home from an hour long soccer game with 200 shots on my DSLR, I expect political photographers at campaign events come home with multiples of that, and many of them are going to be embarrassing/amusing/odd.

    And not to get in the middle of your back and forth with Mantis, there were bloggers yesterday trying to make political hay out of the photo. PJ Media called it, for example, ” an egregious gaffe”–that’s just silly.

  23. @rodney dill: BTW, I wouldn’t count the Dukakis tank picture in this group as it was the direct opposite of an inadvertent gaffe. Rather, it was a photo op that was supposed to enhance his defense cred and had the opposite effect.

  24. rodney dill says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    there were bloggers yesterday trying to make political hay out of the photo. PJ Media called it, for example, ” an egregious gaffe”–that’s just silly.

    …agreed and a serious discussion of that would have been welcome, but as soon as someones starting point is ‘wingnut’ or ‘teatard’ or ‘teavangelical’ or even ‘moonbat’ as my retort, then all serious discussion goes out the window.

    it was a photo op that was supposed to enhance his defense cred and had the opposite effect.

    I did think of that, and technically the John Kerry NASA pic was a photo op as well, but they were the left side examples that came to my mind, not that others more fitting don’t exist.

  25. @rodney dill:

    as soon as someones starting point is ‘wingnut’ or ‘teatard’ or ‘teavangelical’ or even ‘moonbat’ as my retort, then all serious discussion goes out the window.

    I take the point. My preferred route at that point, though, is not to return kind with kind (speaking for myself).

    In re: Kerry, indeed.

  26. rodney dill says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    It seems to me that all you are pointing out is that it is pretty darn easy to find embarrassing/amusing/odd photos of public figures–and that in the era of digital photography and the internet this trend only grows.

    Its not that they are easy to come by, but why the ‘professional’ media sources resort to gravitating to those. (….well money is probably the easy answer, that’s the paparrazi exuse right?), but its not really news in most cases. I can understand why amateur’s photos would end up any number of blogs for parody or photoshop purposes, and its great for caption contests, but its not news.

  27. rodney dill says:

    @Steven L. Taylor:

    though, is not to return kind with kind (speaking for myself).

    I’m not as perfect a person as yourself.

    😉

  28. @rodney dill:

    Its not that they are easy to come by, but why the ‘professional’ media sources resort to gravitating to those.

    It is just so easy for these things to be distributed now regardless of anything else.

    I’m not as perfect a person as yourself.

    Well, one does try to be a role model. 😉

  29. coldwar1204 says:

    HI, MOM!!!!!