Ticket pic of the week: Do not try this at home

Oh, you bet. Here's something we'll for sure try on our next visit to India.

We show our respect to cobra creatures by staying the heck away.

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How we look to incoming aliens

No, that's a little far, back up a few feet

You know, that statue hasn't moved the entire time I've been watching

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Bazuki Muhammad / Reuters

For Perry, Romney and Bachmann, it's all about the hands -- and eyes

Photographs can communicate a telling story, not always the story, but a story.

Take a look at these assorted campaign photographs, the candidates' eyes, posture and body language.

Can you make any kind of observation about the politician's style or connection with voters?

Tim Pawlenty was expected to be a frontrunner in the competition for the 2012 Republican nomination.

He's likable, had appropriately conservative positions and accomplishments to cite from his two terms governing a blue state.

But he dropped out Sunday after a distant third place straw poll finish behind Michele Bachmann.

He'll be ancient history by Friday and released a farewell message late Monday. But analysts have been attempting to discern why the former Minnesota governor got no traction with the media or voters.

Why Pawlenty didn't make that invisible emotional connection with in dividuals that some politicians like Barack Obama once did and Sarah Palin so obviously still does.

They each have their own campaign styles. Some are as phony as a campaigning congressman, pretending to chat while looking over the voter's shoulder at who's next to greet.

Others are intensely present for each person they talk with, an impression that voter shares with many others over time. At least that's the hope.

Perhaps you can spot some of those skills in these photos.

Michele Bachmann impressed viewers with her first debate performance in June and has been enthusiastically campaigning ever since, much like a rock star, protected by her entourage from too much public contact, often tardy to ask waiting crowds for their votes.

Mitt Romney hasn't really stopped campaigning since John McCain conceded and didn't let Sarah Palin speak back on that dark November night in 2008.

Romney's a veteran of a gubernatorial campaign, a U.S. Senate campaign and now two presidential campaigns. If handshakes were worth a dollar apiece, he'd be a multi-millionaire.

So Romney knows the ropes and routines of campaigns and has looked the most comfortable on the pressurized stages of the two most recent GOP debates where competitors display that forced camaraderie.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is the latest to join the Republican fray.

Saturday in Charleston, S.C. he was so eager to get going he charged toward the stage at the RedState Gathering before his introduction was complete.

"Let's get this show on the road," he muttered.

As soon as he finished his candidacy speech (full text right here), Perry plunged into the crowd with a noticeable enthusiasm before dashing off to New Hampshire and then Iowa where he spoke Sunday at a Lincoln dinner in Waterloo, Bachmann's hometown.

Perry cannily showed up early at the dinner. Quiet then. And no competition for attention.

He moved from table to table to sit and chat with each group of Republican diners for a few minutes each, as NBC's sharp-eyed First Read team noted.

Bachmann arrived late, as usual, and did not hear Perry's remarks.

He sat politely listening to hers, then slipped out the back to his new bus and headed for Des Moines. Monday the nation's longest-serving governor worked the Iowa State Fair, as if it was rural Texas instead of rural Iowa.

What kind of impression would you get from these photographs of him talking with individual Iowans?

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Tim Pawlenty's farewell message

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Rick Perry is all in: 'We cannot afford 4 more years of this rudderless leadership'

-- Andrew Malcolm

For unpredictable commentary on politics, follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle.Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photos: Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press (Pawlenty); Charlie Neibergall / Associated Press (Bachmann); Jim Young / Reuters (Perry listens to Iowa voters); Jim Young / Reuters (Perry talks with a senior Iowan); Alexander Cohn / Associated Press (Romney in New Hampshire); Brett Flashnick / Associated Press (Huntsman campaigns in South Carolina); Charles Dharapak / Associated Press (Perry talks with an Iowa State Fairgoer).

White House claims Obama’s bus tour is presidential, so taxpayers will fund it

Somehow, from somewhere, a bright political strategist on the president's reelection team has come up with the idea of sending Obama out in a bus on Midwestern roads in two weeks, just like real Americans, or real Americans who can still afford a short summer road trip.

The spectacle of a passing politician's bus and waving citizens provides grand visuals for TV during the usually slow summer news days. The president of the United States might even happen upon a curbside lemonade stand operated by surprised children who deserve the kind of future he has in mind for all Americans. And more of that.

Not so good visuals of the trailing motorcade of press buses, Secret Service SUVs, SWAT team vans and communications cars. Nor the angry motorists stalled nearby because the highway and every on- and off-ramp has been closed by uniformed motorcyclists wearing large guns.

But a presidential bus tour could help refresh the image of this poll-plagued Democrat a year before his renomination for POTUS.

For weeks now Obama's only been seen at a pompous lectern lecturing members of Congress about the need to raise the national debt limit so he can make new "investments" in America's future and avoid default.

Or he's been seen reminiscing about the good old disastrous days of 2008 with Windy City poobahs who dropped $35,800 each to say they had dinner with the president.

Or Obama could not be seen in closed-door meetings with union leaders, who really liked the $787 billion stimulus plan but don't like any of this spending cut talk. As one result, Obama's job approval has never been lower.

So, on Aug. 15-17 he'll set out from somewhere and go somewhere else in a bus. You wouldn't announce your itinerary until the last minute either if you had Republicans itching to buy critical billboards along the route. And compute how few miles per gallon your big bus gets.

Political road tours do have other dangers. Remember Democrat John Edwards' bus breaking down on an icy Iowa roadside in early 2008, providing an irresistible media metaphor for his campaign on life-support?

So, where's the commander-in-chief going? Politically, Ohio, Indiana and Michigan make strong sense, although a dash into Iowa could help rain on campaigning Republicans' media parade. Yes, they're all run by Republicans now after last November's Democratic debacle. But Obama's got to retake at least two of them if he hopes to keep putting his feet up on that Oval Office desk.

However, according to Obama Press Secretary Jay Carney, the 72-hour bus trip is not political. (Laughter) No, really. Carney told doubting reporters this week, "The air of cynicism is quite thick. The idea that the president of the United States should not venture forth into the country is ridiculous."

Carney was fed such lines during his reporting days. But he persevered with the president's pitch: "It is absolutely important for the president, whoever that person is, in the past and in the future, to get out and hear from the people in different communities." Scroll down to watch Carney attempt to make that case on video.

The main trip topics will be the economy and jobs, he said. And no one would suspect the topics have anything to do with more discouraging employment figures expected out this morning.

Anyway, because the bus trip is so clearly presidential, America's taxpayers will be footing the bill for the non-political, three-day Obama odyssey through politically important Midwestern battleground states.

After all, taxpayers covered all the costs of Sarah Palin's successful One Nation bus tour back in June. Oh, wait. No, they didn't. Her political action committee paid for that.

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-- Andrew Malcolm

Speaking of politics, follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photos: (top) Sarah Palin. Credit: Steven Senne / Associated Press

(middle) President Obama makes an appearnace on Tuesday. Credit: Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

Stephen Colbert allowed to form Super-PAC

Stephen Colbert, the comedic host of "The Colbert Report," was granted permission Thursday to not only form a political action committee but the privilege of promoting it on his show.

The only restriction the Federal Election Commission laid out in its 5-1 ruling was that Colbert could not promote Colbert Super-PAC on any other shows on Comedy Central, the most likely being "The Daily Show," which precedes his 30-minute satirical program.

If any promotion of the PAC does take place outside of "The Report" on Comedy Central or programs aired on Viacom -- its parent company -- it will be considered a political campaign contribution.

Colbert's on-air persona is one of a well-dressed, overly patriotic conservative faintly reminiscent of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, whom Colbert refers to adoringly as "Papa Bear." That persona was in full bloom after the FEC allowed Colbert to have his PAC.

“There will be others who say, Stephen Colbert, what will you do with the unrestricted Super-PAC money?” Colbert told reporters. “To which I say, 'I don’t know. Give it to me and let’s find out.'”

Later, to a cheering crowd the comic actor addressed the elephant in the room: Was this too satirical?

"Some have cynically asked if this is some kind of joke,” he said. “But I don’t think that participating in democracy is a joke. I don’t think that wanting to know what the rules are is a joke.”

On Wednesday Colbert opened his show by saying, "Change is coming, and I hope a lot of large bills too."

Thanks to the feds, change, bills, checks, money orders and all sorts of politically earmarked dollars will soon be headed Colbert's way.

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 Funniest signs and images from the Jon Stewart / Stephen Colbert rally

Jon Stewart rally attendance about 215,000; breaks 19-year-old Metro ridership record

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Satirist Stephen Colbert speaks in front of a massive puppet of himself during the Washington DC rally held in November 2010. Credit: Kris Connor/Getty Images.

Andrew Malcolm is on vacation

Tim Pawlenty attacked by activists with glittery confetti in San Francisco

Tim Pawlenty was minding his own business running for president, signing books at an American Health Insurance conference Thursday when two women representing Reproductive Rights and CODEPINK sprinkled pink, glittery confetti on the former Minnesota governor.

Complaining that the Republican doesn't have "the courage to stand up for gay rights and women's reproductive rights," the two women opened manila folders filled with confetti and doused the man who in 2010 vetoed a Minnesota bill that would have allowed gay couples the right to the remains of their deceased partner.

"Marriage –- defined as between a man and woman –- should remain elevated in our society at a special level, as it traditionally has been," Pawlenty explained in regard to the "Final Wishes" bill that would have also given domestic partners rights to sue in wrongful death cases.

"I oppose efforts to treat domestic relationships as the equivalent of traditional marriage. Accordingly, I am opposed to this bill," the conservative said.

A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows Pawlenty is gaining awareness among American voters, but as Neil King Jr. wrote today, "the more voters get to know him, the more blah they are."

Bathroom mirrors and cellphones, a lethal mix in modern American politics

Who knew that bathroom mirrors would become such a politically potent item in this leadup year to a presidential election?

Especially when paired with a cellphone camera.

Some voters well beyond the age of 18 can remember when those reflective things were dinky squares of glass on the back of a little knobbed door opening to a modest medicine cabinet.

The personal closet behind the mirror held medicinal and other secrets that sometimes attracted the curiosity of visitors who were supposed to be using bathroom facilities.

Fathers and grandfathers stretched up their chins to see in that mirror where they were shaving a vulnerable throat. And women did whatever they do in front of those things.

But no one in those days envisioned mirrors stretching the entire wall width of the room, across two sinks and an expansive counter. And no one envisioned taking instant photos there, let alone transmitting such private images to a wider world.

Twitter profile pages would be blank, it seems, without bathroom mirrors to allow members to photograph themselves in all kinds of interesting positions.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Dumbest Rep of All?

But here we are in 2011 with a flurry of seemingly otherwise intelligent folks photographing themselves or parts of themselves and sharing them electronically with strangers they will likely never meet.

Which may actually be the reason for the false sense of security that comes with many of today's electronic goodies. The false sense of privacy and distance, much like those casual airplane conversations with adjacent passengers you know you'll never see again.

A few months ago we had the New York Rep. Chris Lee using his cell and bathroom mirror to photograph his own bare chest and abs -- and, worse, his actual face -- to post for an online date. How does a married man -- and a Republican at that -- explain that away?

He couldn't. So he was gone from Congress rather quickly.

Now, comes another representative who drinks New York water, Anthony Weiner. Despite initial denials, it turns out the married Democrat had serial sex by Twitter, Facebook and phones with at least six women across the country, including Meagan Broussard, a single mother in Texas (see photo).

Weiner has decided he does not need to resign, despite mounting calls for his departure.

The motivations for such public sharing are likely as diverse as each individual involved, prompted by the false sense of privacy and security from being alone, perhaps intrigued by the interest of a famous or attractive person and the seeming safety of distance, though surely not anonymity. And apparently fueled by a sense of omnipotence in the minds of some pols.

According to the TMZ website, Weiner was aware two weeks ago that some blogger was contacting his female correspondents about his electronic liaisons. Yet he continued his exchanges, including posting to Twitter the now notorious cellphone photo of his bulging underpants.

Thank you for sharing.

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 -- Andrew Malcolm

Don't forget to follow the Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Courtesy of @MrTruthIsHere (Lincoln); ABC News (Broussard); Associated Press (Lee).

Breaking Urgent Flash Really Rush: Mitt Romney is running for president, again, still

Mitt Romney announced today what most sentient Americans have known since August of 2008, the former Massachusetts governor is running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

This became quickly obvious long ago when John McCain's Hail Sarah pass was ruined by McCain's own backbiting staff and then completely blown up by the Wall Street meltdown, not to mention eight years of accumulating anger over George W. Bush policies and his lazy decision to keep Dick Cheney as political partner, instead of grooming a young heir apparent for four years.

So, with no Hillary Clinton pantsuits to mock, the country was doomed by its own self-proclaimed progressive news media to focus on the credentials of the female GOP candidate -- the important stuff, you know, her frameless glasses, alleged wardrobe desires, whether her hair was up or down on any given day, and, of course, red shoes or not. What deleterious impacts her political ambitions had on her poor, oddly-named children. And the possible divorce there rumored by no one trustworthy.

Instead of superficial campaign stuff like the Real Good Talker's blank resume, absence of reform credentials, bald ambition and Chicago machine heritage.

According to Republican tradition, next year's nomination should go to....

According to Obama, the Guinness in Ireland is much better than the stuff they sell in the U.S.

It was a happy occasion Monday during President Obama's hasty visit to Ireland to see what is deemed his ancestral hometown of Moneygall and stop by Ollie Hayes' pub for a pint.

Yes, during all the official hoo-hah in Dublin the president's motorcade had a limo problem that paralyzed its movement briefly, driving the security folks crazy for a few minutes (See full video below) because a POTUS is not supposed to be exposed to unsecured public like those who videoed the accident.

Thousands had waited hours in Moneygall (Pop. 298) to see the Dunham descendant and Obama worked the crowd's perimeter several times. Obama is a beer fancier and has flown in some favorite Chicago brews at times. And remember when he tried to patch up that confrontation between a Cambridge cop and professor? That wasn't a Tea Summit.

Monday it's what happened inside the Moneygall pub that may not go down too smoothly with the American distributors of Ireland's world-famous Guinness.

The president got to reminiscing good-naturedly about a previous encounter with the tasty liquid.

"The first time I had Guinness," Obama said, "is when I came to the Shannon airport. We were flying into Afghanistan and so stopped in Shannon. It was the middle of the night. And I tried one of these and I realized it tastes so much better here than it does in the States."

Oops.

Then the commander-in-chief blithely added: "What I realized was, is that you guys are -- You’re keeping all the best stuff here!”

And now the video.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Pool, Getty Images

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to Obama: What?

WARNING: This story contains references to the Obama administration's repetitious and meaningless diplomatic warnings that may be disturbing to some.

Every now and then the Obama administration likes to warn somebody about something. (Scroll to bottom for partial list.) It looks like real action -- even tough -- and sounds pretty good for a news cycle or two. However, like calling for immigration reform or more college education, it doesn't really accomplish anything.

Wednesday, the Obama administration tried to get really, really tough on Syria for repressing democracy demonstrators, reportedly killing upwards of 1,000 so far. This White House began warning Syria and its president with the unsuccessful moustache back when the reported victim count was in the dozens.

But Wednesday the American administration seemed to get serious. It slapped....

In genuine flip-flop, Obama White House ends faked news photo practice

A quick update on that embarrassing faked photo imbroglio over President Obama's 'I-caught-Osama-bin-Laden-and-he's-dead' speech two weeks ago.

As Ticket readers recall from this item at the time, the photos viewed by millions around the world of the American president making the dramatic White House announcement late that Sunday night were actually not taken during the speech.

They came from a staged reenactment by Obama for the benefit of news photographers minutes after the live TV coverage had ended.

Although some previous presidents have also facilitated the fake photos at times to maximize publicity of whatever event it was, the Osame bin Laden speech reenactment was particularly dicey because this Democratic administration had not and will not release photos of the SEALs raid event or Osama bin Laden's body.

So, some admitted fakes on the controversial death announcement in a conspiratorial world suggested there might be other fakery involved.

Late last week a White House spokesman said it was ending the little-known practice. "We have concluded that this arrangement is a bad idea," said Josh Earnest.

For the record, Earnest only made the statement one time.

-- Andrew Malcolm

Follow The Ticket via Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or click this: @latimestot. Our Facebook Like page is over here. We're also available on Kindle. Use the ReTweet buttons above to share any item with family and friends.

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press (Obama reenacting his May 1 speech on the death of Bin Laden).