Yesterday, several people — including TPM’s own Greg Sargent — noticed a subtle detail on the front page of the RNC’s website, GOP.com: Among five pictured “Defeat-ocrats,” Howard Dean seemed to sport a moustache in the style of Adolf Hitler.
Later in the afternoon, the picture appeared normal. The difference is slight, but noticeable; versions of both are posted below.
The “moustache” was first noticed by a blogger after Atrios posted the picture to his Web site. Here it is:
If you look closely, you can see a little shading under Dean’s nose. Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos also posted a copy of the picture yesterday afternoon, noting the shading. By later that afternoon, the image on the RNC’s Web site had changed to this:
Dean’s lip appears noticeably lighter. I asked TPM’s graphic designer Matt Ipcar if this could have happened inadvertently. It was “definitely manipulated,” he said, adding that it looked like someone used “the burn tool in Photoshop to selectively darken under his nose.” But that wasn’t all. “It looks like they added more gray hair behind the black shadow to accentuate what already looked a little Hitleresque.”
I called the Republican National Committee’s eCampaign section this morning — they oversee the website — and asked about the Hitler moustache. I was immediately passed to the RNC’s communications office. There, a woman then tried to pass me back to the eCampaign office. I explained the issue, and she said she’d call me back. I still haven’t received a call.
Update: We have a call into the DNC asking if they have any comment on this.
