One look at the NYT attitude toward President Bush.

The NYT has an nice interview with President Bush, along with a cropped version of the photograph that appears in black and white on page A7 of the paper copy. The full-size version includes a wide sweep of the Oval Office and has an idealized quality that is missing in the color bit of it that appears online. There must be a lamp of some kind behind Bush's head, because there is a halo-like glow around his head -- visible only in the black and white photo. With the large bowl of roses, the fire at his right hand, the portrait of George Washington above his shoulder, and the grandfather clock at the far left, the elements of the portrait seem to have been assembled with careful symbolic intent, as in an oil painting by Jan Van Eyck.



UPDATE: As an emailer points out, there is a click-to-enlarge button above the small picture at the link. If you click, you'll see more of the horizontal composition, though still not as much as in the newspaper.