The Lonesome Crowded White House

"The Lonesome Crowded White House"?

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Wow. Obama has the dozens and dozens of fawning, adoring groupies from the White House press corps showering him with love and adulation at all hours of the day, and Time magazine calls Obama "lonesome"? BTW, the sentence declaring "If you click on only one link to day, make it this one" should be changed to "If you love Obama as much as Time magazine does, then click on this one. Otherwise, avoid said link to avoid barfing."

A photo gallery of Obama's first 100 days? Yes, there were some nice photos and even a couple that I might use as wallpaper once in a while, but I hope this doesn't mean that we're not going to get thrown some red meat to chew on.

Ah-ha! I knew it. The Prez promised to get down to REAL work in the White House and relax the silly Bush dress code, but they're wearing jackets and ties and all kinds of Republican stuff in those photos. I knew he was too good to be true. /snark

@sacredh,
I suspect that that was the appetizer. There's way too much going on for today to be a boring day.

PD: I hope. As soon as my wife wakes up and gets ready she's going to drag me to Lowes to pick out ceramic tile and paint for the library. I'd like to run my mouth off at least a little bit before I get into "yes, dear, that's really nice" mode.

come on TIME..give it a rest already with your infatuation lovefest of your obamessiah. 13 times on the cover in 1 year..you already have lost all crediability as a serious news source..no wonder why readership is down so much..keep pandering to your ultra liberal audience

MS: I would have guessed "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry".

My Favorite picture of Obama so far - Furniture: The President returns a chair to its place after a meeting in the Oval Office.
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Such a small act says so much.

A shame there wasn't a photographer on hand for this event.
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http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2009/04/obama_meets_privately_with_the.html

Callie Shell has taken some amazing pictures of Obama, on the trail and in the White House.
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Something about the ones where he's looking at portraits of other presidents, I enjoy trying to get into his mind at that moment. The one where he's looking at the JFK painting especially, JFK's head is down and his shoulders are burdened. Lonesome in a crowd indeed.
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Sacred, I've been off red-meat for a couple of days now and kinda like it. It all started tasting the same. But of course, I'll weaken and be back for more soon.

It's partly a reflection of the composition of the photos, but he looks a little overwhelmed. Which I find incredibly reassuring.
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Bush looked like he never fully understood the gravity of his job, the possibility that it could all go wrong. Obama gets that. He's not in denial.

rose83 - had exactly the same thoughts.
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Bush's two habitual expressions - "what, me worry?" and "sullen teenager" - spoke volumes about what wasn't going on in his head.

rose83: I think Bush looked at every problem like it was Chinese arithmetic. He knew he'd never understand it so he didn't even try.

ilikechips Says:
Thursday, April 23, 2009 at 9:47 am

come on TIME..give it a rest already with your infatuation lovefest of your obamessiah. 13 times on the cover in 1 year..
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then why come here?? I love that Obama has been on the cover and the stories are interesting in their indepth look at what it's like running for president, winning and the everyday running of the country.
Why don't you go to your room and stomp your foot and suck your thumb while pouting that your side lost.

I just finished looking at those pics before I came here. They are stunning. Absolutely stunning. I loved seeing Sasha visiting dad in the oval office. And Malia and Michelle with Obama in the hall.
All of them are just wonderful.
I also loved the one where he is in silent reflection.

alaskanturkey: I agree - that one reminds me of the photo from the campaign trail when he wiped the counter at the ice cream shop. He's thoughtful on levels that cannot be rehearsed.
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I especially like the photos with Michelle and the kids. They are so obviously his sanctuary.

alaskanturdy & dunedweller, the chair moving photo also struck me and I was going to eomment on it before I saw your posts. He has a common decency that is reflected in moments like that. After the press conference in Trinidad, before CNN cut it off, somebody had left a wallet on the podium, and he was concerned to return it to the owner. Callie Shell is a brilliant photographer. Her subjects seem to be oblivious to her presence, which is nice, allows us to be flys on the wall.

ilikechips: Yeah, really. Who cares about the president of some two-bit banana republic somewhere in North America. It's located near Mexico or something? Whatever!!

Another good WH photo blog over at Slate.

@alaskanturdy, dunedweller & f-james: Empathy and a shared sense of purpose and responsibility. Heartening to see.

Michael - thanks for the link, as I otherwise wouldn't have stumbled on Callie Schell's album, and she takes such compelling photos of Obama. agree with others about the chair and the ice cream.

"If you click on only one link TODAY, make it this one."
That's it, Mr. Scherer. With all due respect, I'm appointing myself as your copy editor.

The chair photo brings back memories of what my mom used to say. "Leave things like you found them, we're not your servants".