The Internet has allowed the easy share of digital pixels that can be easily manipulated. For a dating site, Facebook, or other social media, it's not uncommon for users to turn back the hands of time with a Photoshop edited image to remove a few pounds and gain some youth. It's not uncommon for a user to use a photo from five or six years ago either. While this usually comes out when digital friends decide to meet, which is always followed with some explaining to do, I can comprehend why politicians do it.
I mean politicians are asking for voters trust, and yet, they shape their rhetoric with photos of many years ago, and in some cases, like Sarah Steelman, a former GOP candidate for governor in Missouri, they go way back. Take a look at the picture that showed up on Billy Long's Web site after Steelman endorsed him in July.
Hottie right?
Well, consider the picture taken two years ago as she ran for the GOP nomination for governor.
And here's another picture that was posted in June 2009 on a local television channel's blog.
So I guess the question is, did Steelman send the picture with her endorsement letter to the Billy Long campaign, or did Billy Long find the younger picture of Steelman for rhetorical purposes? We may never know the answer, but we do know Billy Long was guilty of this same digital pixel sin.
Here's a screen shot from Long's campaign site which shows Billy Long, probably 15 years ago or so compared to the Billy Long of today:
That's quite a difference too. Compare the pictures and notice the decreasing appearance of a neck over time, the glasses, the darker hair compared to the gray hair, and the wrinkles. I guess, what I am really saying is politicians like these two are always asking us to trust them. When they are willing to push back the hands of time in hopes of fooling voters of their more attractive days, I just have to ask what else are they willing to fool voters over as well?
