ABC’s Jake Tapper has a pompous little post about how the photo editors at GQ were biased when they juxtaposed shots of Cindy and John McCain looking geriatric with images of Michelle and Barack Obama looking youthful and radiant in a photo essay about the 2008 presidential race, Who It Takes.

Anyone who watched the debates can tell you that the physical contrast between John McCain and Barack Obama is striking–even thousands of dollars of makeup on McCain couldn’t hide the obvious. So, we’re going into this contest with a pretty steep objective visual deficit for McCain.

As a photographer, I’m irritated by Tapper’s shallow approach to political photography. I don’t know why he’s assuming that campaign photojournalists are just visual stenographers. Who It Takes is a photo essay. As in word essays, the creator assembles a series of statements to express a coherent idea. The main idea in this essay isn’t subtle: Obama is youth, change, and dynamism. McCain is the rickety old status quo. It’s not objective because it’s not supposed to be objective, it’s a piece of opinion journalism.