Scott Hennen posts this poignant picture from John F. Kerry’s trip to Iraq, showing the ex-candidate sans magic hat—and breakfast companions. (Hat tip: Power Line.)

The soldier who took the photo included this note:

This is a true story…..Check out this photo from our mess hall at the US Embassy yesterday morning. Sen. Kerry found himself all alone while he was over here. He cancelled his press conference because no one came, he worked out alone in the gym w/o any soldiers even going up to say hi or ask for an autograph (I was one of those who was in the gym at the same time), and he found himself eating breakfast with only a couple of folks who are obviously not troops.

What is amazing is Bill O’Reilly came to visit with us and the troops at the CSH the same day and the line for autographs extended through the palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand. You decide who is more respected and loved by us servicemen and women!

UPDATE at 12/28/06 5:54:01 pm:

Heads up — this picture may not be from Kerry’s recent trip to Iraq; several LGF readers emailed to let me know that it contains EXIF tags with the date January 9, 2006. Could be an urban legend type thing, or a deliberate hoax.

UPDATE at 12/28/06 6:07:52 pm:

I confirmed that the EXIF data does indeed say the photo was taken January 9th, but Michelle Malkin makes a strong case that it’s genuine: Questions about the John Kerry photo - Answer: It’s real and accurate.

Two possibilities: either the camera’s internal date/time was not set, or someone deliberately edited the EXIF date tag.