The Photo Cristina Doesn't Want You To See?

Take a good look at this picture. What do you see? Anything out of the ordinary?

Keep looking.

See anything odd yet?

If not, you either have bad vision or you're not the kind of person who is obsessed with appearance and aesthetic propriety. Apparently, what Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sees in this photo is a pair of XXL-sized legs - hers. Compare her legs with those of Karolina Rabolini, the ex-model and wife of Argentine Vice President Daniel Scioli.

Are Cristina's legs extra large or Rabolini's extra small? Perhaps both. But who really cares? Apparently, quite a few people. The weekly news magazine Noticias placed this picture in a recent article about the cost of Cristina's election bid. Reportedly, her campaign has cost taxpayers around $130 million pesos, more than any other for a non-sitting president.

What's frustrating about this picture - and the fact that, according to Noticias, so many people have paid attention to it - is that Cristina has given us little reason to talk about anything else. Cristina is clearly a very bright and passionate politician. As a presidential candidate, she must have many thoughtful ideas about how she would change the country. Right?

What does Cristina think about the state of affairs in Argentina today? If elected, what kind of policies would she pursue? Does she agree with her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, on all things political? Does she approve of the way he has handled inflation and the controversy at the national statistics office, INDEC?

Earlier this month a group of protesters - or piqueteros - blocked access to a bridge in Corrientes Province. The group does this every Tuesday, reported newspaper La Nacion. But this time the protesters blocked access to an ambulance, which was rushing to deliver blood to a hospital patient battling Leukemia. Border guard agents stood by as protesters blocked the path and assaulted the ambulance driver.

Raúl Gaúna, the 28 year-old patient who needed a blood transfusion, died. Similar incidents have occurred in other provinces, yet protesters have paid no consequences. What does Cristina think about this? Her husband's policies encourage law enforcement officials to avoid "repressing" social protests. They have a right to protest, so goes the view. But didn't the dying patient also have a right to live, even if for just another minute? Can the government better balance the rights of piqueteros with those of people whose lives are disrupted - or even ended - by protests?

Polls show Cristina will likely become Argentina's next president. Ideally, she would openly address this and other questions so voters could decide if she deserves to run the country. But she continues to remain silent. Why?

Cristina is often compared with US Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton. The two have a lot in common. They're also quite different. Consider even their web sites. Hillary's has a picture or two here and there, but mainly her site is devoid of photos. A born wonk, her site is filled with information about policy goals and detailed plans for reforming health care, education, the economy and foreign policy. Cristina's site, meanwhile, is largely a photo gallery, with video and a few speeches here and there. But where Cristina has a tab for "Fotos," Hillary instead has a tab for "Issues," where she lays out policy proposals.

Of course, none of this means Hillary would be a good president or Cristina a bad one, but perhaps it indicates that Cristina doesn't mind so much if the focus during this election is on her pictures.

She may not like the photo highlighting her comparatively large legs. But when people are talking about the girth of her legs, they're not talking about crime and thousands of unpunished kidnappings; they're not talking about the never-ending cycle of theft and bribery at the country's airports; they're not talking about inflation or the credibility of the government's rosy poverty data; they're not talking about Argentina's energy crisis.

They're not talking about Raúl Gaúna.