A really interesting photo series of members of the incoming Obama administration and key members of Congress in the NY Times magazine that is worth your time. Several things stood out to me, chief of which is just how attractive many of the people are- Reggie Love, Mona Sutphen, and Eugene Kang all look like models. The other thing that struck me was how many people with red hair there were. Additionally, you really do get a sense of who they are just from a picture. The seriousness of demeanor and posture of Jones, Gates, and Shinseki, contrasted with the relaxed pose of Reggie Love and the intriguing gaze of Samantha Power.
Finally, of all the people pictured, only one of them really looks to me like he has no business in politics whatsoever- David Axelrod. Every time I look at him, I just think he is the prototype of what I have in mind when I picture the private detective in crime novels. Or maybe the guy who announced old boxing matches.
Check it out.
Napoleon
I forget where I saw this, but someone described Axelrod as looking like your favorite uncle in his picture. As to looking like a private eye, he does have that Peter Falk/Colombo vibe about him.
Billy K (D-TX)
I’m struck by how "retro" so much of that cast looks. Between the style of photography and the traditional (men’s and women’s) suits, much of it could be mistaken for 1956.
R-Jud
I’m not sure if it’s retouching or veneers or what, but Biden’s choppers are blinding. Zoinks.
John Cole
The pose of Larry Summers reminded me of the old black and white pictures you see of Civil War generals. Something about the side angle, with the odd head tilt and the uncomfortable look on his face.
TenguPhule
Isn’t this exactly what is needed right now?
Jon H
Now that Obama’s in the Oval Office, could someone arrange for he and Michelle to recreate the pose from the New Yorker cover? Not necessarily the wardrobe, of course. But it’d be funny.
Dork
I always thought "David Axelrod" makes an outstanding pr0n name.
Mazacote Yorquest
David Axelrod looks and dresses like a character on Barney Miller. I can see him smirking over his coffee over an offhand remark by Abe Vigoda.
Neil Morse
All of the 30-somethings in that slideshow look much older than their age, while many of the 40- and 50-somethings looks much younger.
Punchy
Some comments….Cass Sustein (sp?) is a dead-ringer for James Taylor. The juxtaposition of serious poses with relaxed ones with odd ones (why is that one dude holding a booklet in front of his face?) makes for a great slideshow.
Most importantly, almost every bio blurb has something substantial, unlike the Bush one, which would had simply stated the amount of money they’d given to Bush’s campaign.
Grown ups running the place. Deep exhale.
rikyrah
Axelrod’s finally combing his hair and wearing suits after 20 years in politics. Before Obama won, he looked like a guy who’d be standing on the corner with a cardboard sign. Having followed his career since Harold, I never thought I’d see him clean up.
Xanthippas
Man, our national security people are VERY serious looking. Guess they got that briefing Cheney was talking about.
Also, Jim Messina looks like a movie villain.
dr. bloor
@John Cole:
It’s funny–I had the thought that some of them looked like death photos from the same time period. A number of them looked unnaturally stiff and awkward, with the plain white background and absence of the usual props no doubt lending itself to the effect.
John Cole
@rikyrah: Do you have any pictures?
Snail
Patrick Gaspard looks like one of Neo’s sidekicks in The Matrix.
John Cole
The other thing that stands out is that they are very stylish. Not just blazers and khakis. And there are so many good looking people in the lot.
TheHatOnMyCat
CNN has a photo up, taken behind the Resolute desk, of Obama sitting at the desk and talking to Emanuel today.
I’ve never seen a picture that made me feel better about being an American.
Life is good.
Snowwy
I look at David Axelrod and I keep seeing Richard Schiff’s character from The West Wing.
kid bitzer
axelrod was the one that i immediately liked just on looking at him. i mean, i just cracked up laughing but in a warm way. there’s something about that photo that reminds me of some of the dufus dog shots you post here–the one’s where a dog is looking totally undignified but really lovable.
desiree rogers, on the other hand, just looked totally wow.
jenniebee
They all look like they’re posing for a paper doll series. All except Shinseki. He looks like the model for a Shinseki bobblehead.
Which is not the way I usually think about Shinseki.
Cap'n Phealy
Axelrod looks like John Hillerman. Not the prim, prissy Higgins of Magnum, P.I., though – the Hillerman whose Texas drawl graced many westerns, including a brilliant turn in Blazing Saddles.
Howard Johnson is right!
Napoleon
I saw a picture of her yesterday that made me think that the NYT picture may not actually do her justice, if you can believe that.
Egilsson
Top 5 hottest Obama people:
1) Melody Barnes – wowza.
2) Desiree Rogers – classic beauty
3) Valerie Jarrett – clearly saucy
4) Cecilia Munoz – cute
5) Carol Browner – perhaps a stretch, but has a couple of obviously attractive qualities.
Most obvious dork:
Ken Salazar – he looks like a clownish loser. He’s as much a "cowboy" as I am the tooth-fairy.
Even though I’m not gay, I probably should add David Axelrod to the "hot" list of people, because getting Obama elected makes him hot to me.
John Cole
Funny- I think Mona Sutphen, Susan Rice, and Samantha Power are all more attractive than Rogers.
jp2
Amazed Love made it this far – I only remember him as a mid-tier Duke basketball player and the fact that he went to a UNC party, got completely knackered, passed out and then UNC students all fucked with and took some awful pictures of him in his debilitated state.
mak
(to the tune of Homer Simpson saying "d o-n u t"): Melody Barnes.
Speaking of which, where is Patti Solis-Doyle?
Napoleon
@Egilsson:
Huh, someone like Moran would blow her away.
smiley
And who amongst us hasn’t had that happen to them.
smiley
@Egilsson:
The word I would use for her is striking. I’m sure she turns a lot of heads when she walks into a room — and knows it.
smiley
@mak:
I have to agree. To me, she’s the prettiest.
KRK
So what are the green lapel pins that Gibbs, Nicholson, and Lippert are wearing? I know that McCaskill’s and Clyburn’s pins have to do with Congress, but none of the those three guys are working on the Hill.
Cartman would say: "Be afraid."
daryljhusseinfontaine
@smiley: "Striking" is exactly the word I would use.
David Axelrod comes from the Chicago Tribune, and he has that look of a seasoned reporter… if he’d stayed in the reporting business, he might eventually have become one of the old men of print media, like Mike Royko.
D
rawshark
Cass Sunstein needs to watch Die Hard With A Vengeance.
goblue72
LOVE the David Axelrod photo. Its the perfect distillation of the iconic political hack. Not a "hack" in the Bush administration sense of a complete amateur appointed to a federal job just because he or she salutes the Cross every morning while doing aerobics to Rush Limbaugh, but the classic sense: a backroom, hired gun operator who manipulates the levers of power behind closed doors.
If you are a politics junkie, he’s the guy you always see in a room at various political or campaign events – nondescript guy lingering at the edges of the room, but whom all the important people in the room seem to defer to in whispered conversations, the lumpy guy looking bored standing behind the grinning suits who you realize is a real locus of power. The guy you realize is the one you need to make friends with if you really want to get anything done at City Hall/The State House/Capitol Hill. He doesn’t care what he dresses like, because he doesn’t have to.
Indylib
Yeesh, why does this conversation keep coming up here?
Ken Salazar is a "real cowboy". He is from La Jara, Colorado, in the San Luis Valley. His family has owned a ranch there since long before any gringos came over the damned mountains. This is the way ranchers dress there…yes..still, especially Hispanic ones.
You may think it’s corny, but I grew up in the next town over and it’s not fake, it’s the way things still are in the back-of-beyond rural Colorado.
Salazar’s brother John is the Congressman from the district that includes the San Luis Valley and he dresses like this too. It’s their way of honoring their heritage- see Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Polish the Guillotines
Nah. But slap a fedora on him with a "Press" card in the hat band and you’ve got your guy.
See, if I’d only read a little further. But it’s nice to have confirmation.
Peter Orszag = Nerd Alert! But there’s this little bit of Clark Kent to him, like maybe he’d Karate-chop your ass if you cross him.
Brandon
Of course, the really hilarious part is that they occupy the same position (not title, but you know Axelrod’s going to be in charge of messaging at the white house).
Michael D.
I think Christina Romer looks like a fat, old Richie Cunningham in women’s clothing.
Michael D.
Steven Chu looks like he is sad because he just wet himself.
Egilsson
BS that he’s a "cowboy" – as in roping steers and riding horses or, god forbid, clearing brush. He’s a land-rich rich boy who is highly educated, who is not blue collar, and who is not a cowboy.
It’s a uniform that these posers wear to prove their linkage to these macho archetypes that people seem to yearn for.
I don’t care if there are a lot of posers in that area, it’s still a pose.
I live in Maine. So if a land-rich Maine politician runs around in a lumberjack red plaid wool shirt and an axe, he’s just being "real" and honoring his ancestors? or is he being a Fred Thompson-type poser?
I’m tired of these affectations.
He looks like a colossal doofus. I don’t know if he is actually a doofus.
goblue72
P.S. Obama’s personal lawyer: if you called up central casting and asked for "one slightly-pompous, eccentric-ish lawyer, stat", this is what you’d get. The scarf and overcoat look just kills me.
Robert Gibbs – Looks like he could mud-wrestle a pig. And would enjoy it.
Janet Napolitano – Looks like everyone’s favorite "fun" aunt – the possibly lesbian "spinster" who still smokes a joint on occassion and taught you how the world really worked when you became a teenager.
Senator Jack Reed – One of the Senate’s most liberal members, this West Point grad/ex-Army Ranger, 30 years later he still looks ready to jump out of an airplane with his M-16.
Michael D.
Ken Salazar looks like a retarded kid whose mom made him dress like a cowboy for Halloween.
Bad Horse's Filly
When Obama’s team was in Denver for the convention, I had the chance to meet some of them, which was thrilling no matter what….but these were some very attractive people. As a matter of fact, the was one fine gentleman I would cyber-stalk if I could. Mmmm-hmmm.
Montysano
@Egilsson: Top 5 hottest Obama people:
Let’s not forget Michelle Obama – yowza. The stature, the muscles; she’s just stunning. I loved it when she showed up in red dress and heels for lunch with the Dubyas.
kid bitzer
having come out early for desiree rogers, before a late pro-melody barnes wave broke among the other commentators, can i just point out something?
there are some great looking women in that line-up.
and not one of them can hold a candle to the first lady.
have you seen the photos of her on the parade route yesterday?
man, she is beyond classy, beyond striking. more like maybe: regal.
i’m dead set against turning the presidency into a monarchy–we had enough a that bullshit under the bushes.
but regal is just the word that comes to me–a combination of gorgeous, radiant, powerful, confident.
also the word ‘wow’ comes to me. but that’s less descriptive.
TheHatOnMyCat
Yes, everyone knows that only cowboys wear Western hats, just as only baseball players wear baseball caps.
Only tennis players wear tennis shoes.
Salazar is a real rancher, who grew up on a real ranch, in a family that has ranched and farmed in the West for generations.
Ranchers wear western hats as everyday garb.
Ranchers are not necessarily cowboys themselves, but whatever your idiotic rant is about has nothing to do with Salazar.
I myself went to a grade school out here in the West that had horseback riding and stable chores as PE class. We rode horses every day, and we don’t think a cowboy hat is funny, we think people like you are fucking bigmouth assholes who have no idea what they are talking about.
TheHatOnMyCat
And why don’t you guys fix your FUCKING MODERATION FILTER?
Blue Raven
All the hot women have already been discussed, so I’m going to take that as read and say two words that will raise flutters in my heart for as long as he’s visible in this administration:
Rahm Emanuel.
Bedroom eyes and a vicious sense of humor. Also, a backstage shot of him during the photo session showed he was keeping his feet in what ballet calls third position for at least some of the shoot. Once a dancer…
Soylent Green
As couples go, Cass Sunstein and Samantha Power remind me of Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich — the classic pairing of nebbish and knockout.
Litlebritdifrnt
OT (or maybe not they could become some of Obama’s people) but a couple of the Rump Roasters have found the Obama puppies, labradoodles, two of them! Rescued from a puppy mill in foster care as we speak. I propose that all of us begin a National Campaign right now to make Stella and Susie the new first dogs. Get e-mailing! Stat. (Over at RR they are calling it a Rumprowl:))
Oops forgot the linky dink
http://www.rumproast.com/index.php/site/comments/malia_sasha_weve_found_your_dog_or_even_two_dogs/
ChrisB
Reggie Love’s picture is my favorite. You can tell he’s cool from the shades, ipod and shirt but the best part of the picture is his inside jacket pocket, full of pens, etc. at the ready if Obama ever needs one.
Also, Daschle looks incredibly likeable in his photo.
And could Orzag be decked out with more nerd accessories? (Not sure if his shirt pocket actually has a pocket protector but still.) All he needs is a slide rule.
Strautmanis’s personality really comes out in his photo. Looks like a fun guy.
I find many of the others unflattering. Not an expert but they seem washed out or oddly lit. The skin tone seems strange on many of them.
Egilsson
@TheHatOnMyCat: Project much?
That hat is glued to his head on every occasion, all the time. If he were out on a horse in CO, then fine. He’s not, it’s obviously a pitiful affectation to give him western "cowboy" cred, and he looks like a fool. Sounds like you have the same issue.
Litlebritdifrnt
@ChrisB:
I agree, what is with Hillary’s orange cheeks?
elmo
TheHatonmyCat, you bring back memories. Eastern San Diego County used to be like that when I was little — the high school I went to used to have a stable across the street and a hitching ring out front, for the students who rode horses to school. The stable was torn down for a Jack in the Box in about 1980 or so.
KRK
And lots of non-ranchers wear them for special occasions. My stepdad had a decent hat that he would wear for evenings out with the family and a special hat and pair of boots that he would wear for weddings, funerals, and other fancy dress events (such as they were). He wasn’t alone. And he wouldn’t find anything wrong with Salazar’s get-up.
Sean
Jim Messina :
He has the kind of aura around him that, if I happened upon his horribly mutilated corpse, I would shoot it several times.
Just to be safe.
crack
Axelrod is Toby Ziegler with the slight advantage of head hair making up for his lack of a beard.
Cass Sunstein is married to someone (Power) 2/3 his age.
KRK
@Egilsson:
Somehow I don’t think Salazar’s going to be up at night worrying that someone from Maine thinks his hat is an affectation. It’s a big country out here. Vive la difference!
Jay C
Pretty good collection (photos AND folks) – this crowd at least look like they know what they’re about.
"Hot" award: Mona Sutphen. Mmmmm….
"Not" award: Hillary Clinton: could she have managed to look older, drabber or more distracted if she tried?
And what’s that ribbon Joe Biden has in his lapel?
pablo
Whenever David Axelrod comes on my TV, I shout out "Where’s Maude at?". But that’s just me.
Indylib
@Egilsson: .
Why don’t you at least try googling before you make stupid comments about which you know nothing.
The Salazar Ranch consists of 220 acres that they own and 1600 that they lease from the government. That is hardly "land rich" in the west, especially if you’re running cows on it.
And yes, Salazar is "highly educated" in the best American tradition, he graduated from a public high school with less than 200 students, got his BA at Colorado College, a liberal-arts school with an enrollment of about 2000, and got his J.D. from University of Michigan Law School. A good solid American education, but hardly Ivy League or elite in any way.
He may not be blue collar anymore, but I damned well guarantee, he grew up that way. His parents ranch didn’t have electricity or a telephone when he was a kid, and that wasn’t uncommon in the Valley in the 50’s and even into the 60’s, my Dad grew up the same way. All of his 7 brothers and sisters got college educations, which to my mind makes this family an American success story.
And I know for a fact that he can ride a horse and rope a cow, so I guess he can wear a damned cowboy hat and a bolo tie if he wants to, even if that makes small minded idjits call them posers. Not every politician who dresses this way is a wanne-be cowboy like Shrub. Some of them come by it honestly. It may not impress you, but when people from the rural west see someone high in the government dressed this way, it makes them feel part of said government.
Rant over.
John Cole
Jack Reed reminds me of a Jack Russell terrier.
Phoenix Woman
@goblue72:
Yeah. He has "Don’t mess with me" written all over him.
Of the top brass, Shinseki has the loosest stance; it’s the stance of a guy who knows he doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone.
Rahm Emanuel looks like Nosferatu had access to David Bowie’s eyeshadow.
Adrienne
@Snowwy: Me too. It’s strange. I keep seeing Toby.
Mary Jane
Axelrod looks like a basketball coach, the kind that has his jacket off before the end of the first quarter.
smiley
@Egilsson: From Maine, eh? Have you ever been anywhere else? Like west of the Mississippi? In many places a "cowboy" hat, as you call it, is just a fucking hat, like the one everyone else is wearing. In Maine, especially in winter, I’ll bet a lot of people wear wool watch-type caps. Does that mean they want people to think they’re in the navy or is it because they’re warm? There’s a functionality to wearing them. Out west, there a functionality to wearing "cowboy" hats. They are (usually) light colored, made of breathable material like straw (tho not always), and have a wide brim. Functional for the climate. I challenge you to go to Mexico and count how many men there wear "cowboy" hats. You’ll run out of fingers and toes in about 2 seconds.
Krista
That makes sense, though. It’s possible that some (or even most) of them are natural redheads, but as red hair dye has grown more and more natural-looking, it has increased in popularity. The number of natural redheads has actually decreased, due to it being a recessive gene, but on an average day walking around, you’ll see a lot more redheads than you would have 20 years ago.
William Ockham
Lemme set you young ‘uns straight about some of this.
David Axelrod – When you see somebody dressed like that, you know a few things instantly. One, somebody else made him wear that tie and you really need to find that guy cause he’s gonna be President or something some day. David Axelrod picked those clothes because they’ll look just as good (or bad) after three straight days of wear as they do when he put them on. He’s got that look of a guy who is the best in the world at something and so nobody ever tells him he looks like crap cuz they need him. He could be a programmer or a writer or just about anything that requires a quick mind and gallons of coffee every day.
Ken Salazar – Yes, some folks really dress like that. No, they don’t care what you think.
James Jones – That was after they told him to relax.
Peter Orzag – Yes, he does still own a slide rule and no, his other pair of glasses are not taped up. Just be glad he’s not doing your IRS audit. This guy looks like he’s ready to beat the federal budget into submission. I want ask him what’s the longest spreadsheet macro he’s ever written.
Jack Reed – Yes, he can take down men half his age armed with nothing more than that piece of paper.
Krista
Thoughts on the slideshow:
James Jones has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen on a human being.
Denis McDonough and Rahm Emanuel look like they could be related.
And yes, Hillary Clinton’s colour and placement of blush were very ill-advised.
Cris
A lot of credit has to go to photographer Nadav Kander. It never fails to amaze me that a camera can create art in the hands of an artist. To someone like me, it’s a tool — you push the button, it captures an optical image of what’s in front of it. But somebody like Annie Leibovitz is able to capture an image far deeper than the objective reality in front of the lens.
Kirk Spencer
Egilsson (and some others),
There’s a bit more to the story. For some reason the sound isn’t playing along this time so I don’t know if it’s my computer or other issues, but there used to be a soundtrack to both sets of pictures.
If you go to the track for "Launch Backstory" you discover that everyone was asked to bring something particular to themselves. An item or piece of clothing that they thought of as showing something of who they were – a personal touch. Thus you get the nerd rage of Orzag. You get Kang’s little black book, Casey’s basketball, and the shawl worn by Munoz. Not everyone brought something, but many did.
Salazar is wearing his hat because of the request. He doesn’t wear it in the halls of Congress. He does wear it when about town, just as anyone else would wear their hat. The issue of whether he’s a "real" cowboy is immaterial.
For what it’s worth, I’d estimate that 2/3 of adult males in Colorado who live outside Denver have cowboy hats whether they’re cowboys or not. That was the impression I got when I grew up there, and it’s remained every time I’ve gone back to visit family.
The Confidence Man
I think the photo of Axelrod looks like Kevin from The Office. Not in his specific physical traits (although the pear shape helps) so much as the "I like cookies" look on his face.
pseudonymous in nc
I was intrigued by Jim Warren’s line on Tuesday night that one reason why Axelrod was sticking around was to ensure that Obama didn’t get sucked in by the culture of DC — the Village, if you will.
I also like the set. It isn’t as consistent as Avedon’s "Portraits of Power", which is just immense, or the 2004 set curtailed by his death — the colour portrait of Obama juxtaposed with one of Carter is a great thing — but that’s part of the circumstances of its making, and given those constraints, Kander did a good job.
(John: Larry Summers seems to have been posed with a nod to Ingres, which is nearly contemporaneous with those Civil War generals.)
Chris
Whoever shouted out Mike Royko up there made my day.
The guy should be remembered up there with I..F. Stone, H.L.Menken, Leibling, and other great American journalists. His book on Daley, "Boss", is up there with All The Kings Men in the great political books category. Plus he inspired a John Belushi character (Continental Divide) and said when he quit the recently acquired Sun Times , "No self-respecting fish would be wrapped in a Murdoch paper"
I don’t think the world needs another redhead appreciation on the internet, but Samantha Power is up there with Mrs. Kucinich in the "I could get lost in those freckles" department
David
@Jay C:
I think it’s a gold star for loved ones serving in the military in a theater of war.
Multiple stars on one ribbon signify multiple people.
Beau Biden is currently in Iraq (or was).