A tale of two Oval Offices
Pete Souza’s gorgeous coffee table book, Obama: An Intimate Portrait, is an international bestseller, which is unheard of for a book of photography, particularly one that runs 350 pages and weighs 2.3 kilograms.
Souza was the official White House photographer for all eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency and he only took the job on the condition that he have “access to everything” as he writes in his introduction to his book. He wanted to capture the full depth of both the man and the presidency, not just take boring official shots.
Seen in the light of the current administration, Souza’s images evoke a time so recent and yet so long ago, when the Oval Office and its occupant, regardless of political stripe, was a decent, thoughtful, hardworking man, who surrounded himself with smart, qualified staff and everyone discussed the facts instead of fake news and how to B.S. through a trade meeting with the Canadian prime minister, one of America’s most faithful allies.
There’s a photo of the morning summary, the classified document prepared every night by American intelligence agencies and left for Obama every morning on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Fortunately, America now has a president who knows more than the generals, is smarter than all of the national security experts and relies on the intelligence of talking heads on TV for what’s really going on.
Although he never served in the Armed Forces, Obama regularly thanked the men and women in the Armed Forces in person for their sacrifice. In the case of Army Ranger Cory Remsburg, he shook his hand and said thanks to him at a June 2009 ceremony in Normandy, France, marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day and he thanked him again the next time they met, the following February at the Walter Reed hospital. Remsburg had been severely injured by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. In a Souza photo, he is partially paralyzed, hooked up to a variety of machines and dozens of stitches run in a continuous line across the entirety of the right side of his shaven head, starting just above his swollen shut right eye.
Fortunately, the United States now has a president who regularly threatens North Korea with the fire and fury of America’s military might and tells grieving widows over the phone that they shouldn’t be sad because dying for his country is what her husband had signed up for.
In the most famous photograph of his presidency, from May 2011, Obama sat to the side, letting Brigadier General Brad Webb do his job of handling the communications link between the White House and the special-ops team taking out Osama bin Laden.
Not so famous is a Souza shot four days later at the Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9 Firehouse in midtown Manhattan, where Obama stopped for lunch and raised a glass with the company to the 15 firefighters - the station’s entire morning shift - who died on Sept. 11.
Fortunately, America now has a president who throws out rolls of paper towels to Puerto Ricans after their island is devastated by a hurricane.
Former presidents - and George W. Bush, in particular - regularly appeared with Obama, despite their political differences, whether it was to recognize 9/11 families, to celebrate Martin Luther King Day or to mark the opening of the African American History and Culture museum.
Fortunately, America now has a president who thinks there are good and bad people on both sides when civil rights activists clash with neo-Nazis and black NFL players who kneel during the national anthem are “sons of bitches.”
At a basketball game in the summer of 2012, Barack and Michelle Obama were put on the spot by the notorious “kiss cam.” The smooch is emphatic and sincere.
Fortunately, America now has a president whose hand gets swatted away by the First Lady when he wants to hold it in public but lucky for him, there are porn stars like Stormy Daniels and all sorts of other women still begging for his affection because he’s famous.
There’s FBI director Robert Mueller, a lifelong Republican and decorated Vietnam veteran, briefing the Democratic president Obama after the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Fortunately, America now has a president who thinks the FBI is corrupt and Mueller’s current investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election should be shut down.
Paul McCartney performed at the White House and sung Michelle specifically to the First Lady, to the excitement of her husband and their young daughters.
Fortunately, the current American president still has Kid Rock in his corner.
In a book of beautiful photographs, Souza makes it clear that Obama was as presidential as his successor is a reality TV star.
Neil Godbout is managing editor of The Prince George Citizen.