The picture demands one's concentration because it is not in color, though the scene, of course, was. The black-and-white recapitulates the event to emphasize its meaning. "What is going on?'' one is impelled to ask. A campaign speech, to be sure, but something more. If one did not know who the particular candidate in this photograph was, it might be said that he is wrapping himself in the flag. Yet Bill Clinton was attacked during the campaign for being un-American; as a student he avoided the draft, he visited Moscow.
The irony of the image is compounded by the fact that Clinton supported and helped pass an ordinance against flag-burning in the state of Arkansas. What sort of candidate, then, is gesturing to the crowd? A flag-burner?
