The latest crybaby accusations from Marco Rubio are that Ted Cruz Photoshopped a picture of him (Marco) shaking hands with Obama to illustrate his agreement with Obama on recent trade legislation. How pathetic. Of course some of the media is feeding it as some dark subtle manipulative tactic by Cruz when of course it is a common, time-immemorial, caricature technique of political warfare. Here is the purported offense:
For crying out loud look at the thing. It is OBVIOUSLY a caricature, stiffly made on purpose. Surely not intended to fool anyone as a real photo, it is the next thing to a cartoon. The Dallas Morning News reported a Cruz spokesman’s response to Rubio’s objection:
Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler doesn’t deny the image was manipulated.
“Two days before the presidential primary in South Carolina, they want to talk about a picture we used,” Tyler told CNN. “If Rubio has a better picture of him shaking hands with Barack Obama, I’m happy to swap it out.”
The DMN article goes on to repeat the rivals narratives of other of Cruz’s supposed offenses. The Carson thing (wrong information about Carson’s intended trip to Florida after the Iowa Caucuses) was understandable in the heat of, or the inadequately vetted exuberance of victory. Cruz apologized even though Carson’s own actions prompted speculation. We find vote shaming tied to Cruz distasteful but no more so then when the RNC and Republican Party of Iowa do it, which they have and which we have reported. What is definitively worse is lying about someone lying which Trump and Rubio do with abandon (especially Trump where it exists as a significant part of his persona and campaign).
Obama head in foreground
Of course shaking hands with a rival, even the enemy prior to or after negotiations is not the issue. The issue is the agreement, who is on which side. As far as shaking hands with Obama does anyone think at some point Rubio has not shaken hands with Obama? No doubt every current Senator has done so at least in some perfunctory setting. Here is a picture from Huffington Post apparently of a State of the Union address. Good pictures can be hard to come by. Personally I would not bother the line to make the effort.
R Mall
