# Prez Bush holding a book upside down. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 6, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090 "2002-10-06T18:47:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/1 "2002-10-06T18:47:34Z")
I’ll see if I can find a pic to post of what I’m talking about, but in the mean time a description will have to do… My \*&%^# of a mother-in-law sent me a jpg of prez Bush where he looks like he’s trying to get some good PR pictures of him. He’s sitting next to a child who appears to be reading a book, and prez Bush is holding the same book, only it’s upside down. Does anyone know the source of this? Is it a real picture? When did it happen? The reason I ask is becuse it just kind of hacked me off that my MIL would send the me the pic with some cute little saying attached like “This speaks volumes”, to which I replied back “No it doesn’t! Granted it’s not the best picture to have taken of you, but sheesh, no one would really believe that he doesn’t know which way to hold a book.” It’s one thing to imply Bush isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer, but to imply he can’t make it through elementary school is preposterous. E3 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/2 "2002-10-06T19:01:39Z")
Heh. I thought so. Snopes is your friend. > [@](#): > > Claim: A picture of President George W. Bush holding a book upside-down in a classroom is real. > Status: False. > **[Does This Photograph Show President Bush Reading a Book Upside-Down?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bush-upside-book/)** > > The book shown in this photograph is 'America: A Patriotic Primer,' by Lynne Cheney Digital editing. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/3 "2002-10-06T19:01:48Z")
[Snopes debunks it as fake pic](http://www.snopes.com/photos/bushbook.htm) The possibilities for replies to your MIL about overly credulous people being taken in by fake pics and assuming everything that hits their in box is a fact, present themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/4 "2002-10-06T19:05:24Z")
Damnit, and I’m always the first one on the scene to look at Snopes or McAffee to debunk the latest crap that people send me in email. Thanks, everyone. If anyone is interested… [Fake Picture of Prez Bush](http://personal.bellsouth.net/e/n/enright3/photos/bush_with_book.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![MadScientistMatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@MadScientistMatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadScientistMatt)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/5 "2002-10-06T19:14:01Z")
Yeah, if you take a close look at the picture, you’ll notice the image on the back cover doesn’t line up with the edges of the book. Looks OK at a glance, but open it in a paint program and zoom in, and it’s a pretty clear fake. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/6 "2002-10-06T19:15:46Z")
The evidence Snopes provides that it’s a fake is mighty weak, IMHO. It’s likely it is the reverse of the kid’s book because the whole class is holding the same book, which is supported by the “original” photo they have. Of course, even if it’s real, it’s meaningless because as Snopes says: “it could have come about because an aide handed the book to President Bush for a quick schoolroom photo opportunity, the President didn’t immediately notice it was upside-down because he was looking at the student to his right, and a photographer managed to snap a picture before the error was corrected.” No matter how dumb you think the man is, surely he knows when a book is upside-down or not. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/7 "2002-10-06T19:30:26Z")
Revtim, look at the middle part of the Snopes link, where it says: > [@](#): > > The photo does show some tell-tale signs of digital editing, so the real explanation is that someone took an existing picture and flipped the image of the book in President Bush’s hands. Note, for example, that the picture on the back of the book in the student’s hands and the one on the back of the book President Bush is holding are the reverse of each other, a dead giveaway that the photo was manipulated: > > Incidentally, the book shown in this photograph is America: A Patriotic Primer, by Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice-President Dick Cheney. The photo to the above right, a picture of Mrs. Cheney with the children of naval personnel, is the one that appears on the back cover of the book. (Note the correct orientation: the child holding an American flag should appear on the left-hand side of the photo, not the right-hand side as shown in the doctored image of the book President Bush is holding.) Look at the two pictures directly under this quote. Snopes has taken Bush’s back-of-the-book picture and flipped it so it’s facing the same way as the kid’s, and you can easily see that it’s the mirror image of the picture on the back of the kid’s book. The photo on the back of the kid’s book has a kind of white triangular thing in the upper left-hand corner, looks like someone wearing a white T-shirt, but in the picture on the back of Bush’s book, the white triangular thing that looks like someone wearing a white T-shirt is in the upper right-hand corner of the photo. Also, if you squint, you can make out the mirror images of the kid holding the flag–scroll up a teeny bit and compare it with the original photograph of Lynne Cheney holding the kid on her lap. You can see the kid’s dark-sleeved arm against the white pillar in both pictures, but in mirror images. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/8 "2002-10-06T20:30:00Z")
Doh! You’re right. All you have to do is mentally flip W’s book in the fake pic, and you can see that the woman in the red top on the back cover (Ms. Cheney I presume) would be on the wrong side compared to the girl’s book in the same pic (so it doesn’t matter if the whole pic was reversed compared to the pic with boy). Thanks, DDG. ---
**Author:** ![Texican](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ebca7d/32.png) [@Texican](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Texican)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/9 "2002-10-06T21:37:40Z")
Does anyone remember the picture of Clinton when he was at some military installation and looking through binoculars with the lens covers still on? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/10 "2002-10-06T23:01:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Texican \* > \*\*Does anyone remember the picture of Clinton when he was at some military installation and looking through binoculars with the lens covers still on? \*\* IIRC, that was taken near the DMZ in Korea. In all fairness, that guy is about as popular with the Right as Bush is with the Left, so who knows the authenticity of it. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-bush-holding-a-book-upside-down/131090/11 "2002-10-07T01:43:00Z")
There is a lot of photo phakery going on, as evidenced by the the following, which has been as popular with the Right as the Bush/book photo is with the left: [Daschle’s Liberal Pledge](http://www.snopes.com/photos/daschle.htm) It behooves us all to sharpen our powers of critical thinking, and not take things at face value, especially when they seem to play to our prejudices.