Yes, folks, truly this is The Sun’s election day front page …
It is, to put it politely, woeful. Not only does it make the assumption that Sun readers will instantly recognise the Obama imagery – by no means a certainty – but it fails the crucial credibility test.
The famous Kinnock light-bulb front page of 1992 captured, cruelly but brilliantly, the nation’s last minute doubts that the Labour leader was prime ministerial. But is there anyone who really looks at David Cameron and thinks, “There’s our Obama”? No.
I was fully expecting a full-tilt Sun attack on either/both Clegg and/or Brown: as they showed 18 years ago, going negative can work. I guess I should be grateful that Murdoch’s rag has thrown away the opportunity to lash out at their opponents in a way which might inflict damage.
By drawing the ludicrously hyperbolic Obama/Cameron comparison, it does almost seem as if The Sun is over-compensating: this arty-farty front page invites derision. Indeed it’s already started …




21 Comments
Is there some six point text below it…
“…of keeping our jobs. Jamie & Becca”
It looks more like a piece of Soviet “Heroic Realism” – ironically enough.
Snort, of course, being the appropriate word. Everyone I spoke to today thought that for his “24 hours to save my arse” stunt Cam looked as if he might have been having a little chemical help 🙂
I’m sure the Sun think they’re helping by putting a ‘modern Conservative’ in the equivalent of blackface…
Though surely Americans reading their front page would be less open-mouthed by the ridiculous Obamification than by the instantly recognisable – save one word – line “In Cameron We Trust”. Never mind David Cameron becoming Obama: it seems he is also God. Surely that’s blasphemy against Their Lord Murdoch?
There’s an even better one here.
Oh. my. word…..
And how many undecideds may now have a snigger as they accidently miss the conservative box on their ballot paper……
I suspect the Obama thing will go over most heads – I’m afraid to say it went over mine, despite the fact that I have the Washington Post as my home page. Surely most Sun readers will simply skim the text – which is a pretty lukewarm endorsement, anyway – and turn to page 3. Lets hope it’s enough to distract them from voting!
PS. Is it me, or have they tried to make him look a bit like Nick….?
I don’t know whether the actual newspaper image is clearer, but it never crossed my mind that was Obama (whether the message is meant to be sublminal or not). It doesn’t even look like Cameron.
By the way, re Cam’s image. I believe he dyes his hair. He can’t keep doing that much longer (unless he wants to start looking like Paul MacCartney) and the youthful image could soon fade. On the other hand, a greying NC too?
if the face fits! IF!
Actually, the election has suddenly become irrelevant. Here’s the _really_ big story.
The president of the Russian region of Kalmykia has announced that he’s made contact with extraterrestrials:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8662822.stm
The Daily Snail (it leaves a trail of slime in it’s wake) is surely better warning of the dangers of a Greek style hung parliment, despite the fact that the Greek Government has 160 of the 300 MPs and therefore has a “strong majority government” just like the UK, which has of course a bigger debt problem than Greece.
Perhaps they meant to sue the example of Zimabwe as a warning of the dangers of firts past the post ?
When the picture was taken or doctored, just what was up Cameron’s fundament? Either that or someone thought it looked inspirational gazing into the far distance with the sunlit Tory uplands………
Talk of damning with faint praise, poorly chosen, badly implemented graphic that makes Cameron look really uncertain. I’m surprised they didn’t use an image like that of Clegg on the inside pages with an attack line about him being a wishy washy wiberal”. The Fun usually does better than that…
I still live in the hope that there will be enough of a recovery in the Labour vote to make them largest party and that Lib Dems can work with them (under a new leader like Miliband) to WELL AND TRULY STUFF Murdoch and all the poisonous rabble that make up the right wing media tycoons in this country.
They have done nothing all campaign but try to pollute the wells of democracy. They have poured vitriol into the eyes and ears of the voters with the slimiest and most vicious, mendacious parade of pseudo journalism I have ever seen.
Excuse me if I sound enraged, but I am absolutely livid about the press treatment of our party and leader and the arrogant, high handed way that these tax dodging plutocrats are able to dictate the political agenda in this country.
There, said it. Phew!
Cameron in that pic looks the spitting image the parody cartoons.
Invisible chin, and rather wobbly.
The Guardian produced a similar image of Nick last month, only it was on the Front Page of the G2.
“I still live in the hope that there will be enough of a recovery in the Labour vote to make them largest party and that Lib Dems can work with them (under a new leader like Miliband) to WELL AND TRULY STUFF Murdoch and all the poisonous rabble that make up the right wing media tycoons in this country. ”
Labour spent the majority of its 13 years sucking up to Murdoch.
The Sun headline is exactly right.
Murdoch preserved his press monopoly by supporting Labour, but he has now rejected Labour. If the Tories lose, he fears legislation that will restrict foreign ownership of our media.
So yes. Cameron is “our” only hope … if “we” our Murdoch, and the other foreign press barons who try to choose control our politics.
I reckon that front page is worth a good few votes for us where it counts. It’s enough to scare any “Nah, I can’t be bothered” voter who isn’t a committed Tory to go running to the polls to vote ABC.