Rush Limbaugh's brother David tweeted the image above Wednesday. Politico's Maggie Haberman says it's "an image you're likely to see again" and her colleague Jonathan Martin tweets, "The coming culture war: A pic you'll see again if Perry is the nominee." And Perry's spokesman Mark Miner didn't mind commenting on the photo, emailing Haberman, "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Similar photos were posted on a thread at Free Republic, a popular conservative message board, earlier Wednesday. In addition to the side-by-side (Obama, by the way, is not 22, but 19 in the photo), posters added more culture war-ish images, mostly of Perry shooting guns, and comments like this one:

My God, it is sickening.

 

One "man" devoted to the prevalences of mind altering substance and campus life.

 

Another of duty, process, and, meeting expectations. Producing quantifiable results. The other, working their way through the university system.

 

Turns the stomach. Barry can claim to know the ultimate way to roll a massive roach at 22. Perry can claim to know how to show up on time, in spec, and take off and land a Mach 1.5 capable aeroplane at 22.

 

The contrast speaks volumes.

I may not support him for president, but I’ll give Perry props for being a real man at that age. Obama -- not so much.

And some are kind of racist. But The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza says this image is the one we'll probably see more often:

 

 

Those sick of the culture war can only hope.

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Elspeth Reeve