Speaking of misdirecting campaign graphics, Governor Larry Rhoden opens his reëlection campaign website with this underwhelming photo of himself:
Not only does Rhoden not resurrect his best feature, his manly mustache, but he also doffs his second-best feature, his signature West River cowboy hat. The two things that say most clearly who he is don’t get top billing. Instead, we just a pale face and less-than-crisp blue suit, white collar, and red tie. (Oh, but that Jesus tie-tack is a nice touch for the theocratic base!)
Rhoden’s hat does enter the second picture:
Yeah, there you go! White hat and big honkin’ belt buckle—there’s the cowboy chic we need to affirm our fondest self-imaginings, all of us rootin’-tootin’ Wild West heroes…
But both images show Larry out of place. He doesn’t show his cowboy trappings out on the glorious open range depicted in the first photo. Instead, he breaks out minimal cowboy gear, over the same boring blue suit and Jesus-tacked red tie, to stand, hands passively in pockets, in front of glittering Cherapa Place in downtown Sioux Falls. Don’t tell me Rhoden is gunning for some sly absurdist juxtaposition; his picture people just didn’t think about what they were snapping and photoshopping and posting on their lazy home page. They lead with a bland businessman pasted on top of an empty West River landscape (ooo—but if you view it on the campaign website, they did make the clouds roll!), then plunk a hat on him in the middle of metro Sioux Falls. The result—Rhoden looks out of place in both places… which maybe represents how out of place he feels on the campaign trail as the eternally young gun Dusty Johnson aims to replace him.