OMG! Incompetent Republican Stagecraft!

Someone is going to lose their job!

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/213806.php

A lot of people were asking tonight: what the hell was that mansion up behind John McCain tonight during the first part of the speech? As I noted below, the TV close-ups only showed McCain's head against the grass in the picture, which made it look like he was reprising his famed green screen performance. And when they panned out, it looked like McCain was showing off one of his mansions.

Well, several readers have written in to tell me that the building is actually the main building on the campus of the Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California. And sure enough, this page on the school's website makes it pretty clear that they're correct.

You can compare below ...






So it's not a mansion, but a middle school. But that still doesn't answer the question of why they picked this picture to have him standing in front of -- when I would imagine that 99.9% of the US population would have no idea what they were looking at.

(ed.note: Thanks to TPM Readers JR and EK for cluing us in.)

Late Update: I'm surprised this hadn't occurred to me. But several readers have suggested that perhaps one of the tech geeks charged with setting up the audio/visual bells and whistles for the evening was tasked with getting pictures of Walter Reed Army Medical Center but goofed and got this instead. At first I thought, No, that's ridiculous. This is a major political party with big time professionals putting this together. Nothing is left to chance. I mean, is this the RNC or a scene out Spinal Tap or Waiting for Guffman? I still have a bit of a hard time believing they're quite that incompetent. But when you figure in what appears to be the utter lack of any logic for this school being behind McCain and the fact that it has 'Walter Reed' in its name, I'm really not sure you can discount this possibility.

(ed.note: Special bonus snark: That's not stock photo keyword searching we can believe in.)

I can deal with a lot from these guys. Ghod knows I have. But as an old roadie and stagehand, when they start with the incompetent stagecraft, that's it. They have crossed the line. THIS IS WAR!!! :silly:

I thought it looked like my school, but then again, it's been awhile.

Yes, I'm a dork posting this on all the applicable threads. :)

:shrug:

see "Mavrick" posts....:rofl:

Yep, someone screwed up.

And, once again, the Republicans stole something right in front of everyone, when they played Heart's "Barracuda" without permission and without paying a royalty. All things considered, it's kind of a minor thing, but this is at least the third time that McThuselah has stolen someone else's property and used it for his own purposes. We used to call that sort of thing "theft," but maybe it's time to just call it the Republican Way of Doing Things.

But don't think for even a nanosecond that you could swipe something of theirs.

if he downloaded it from LIMEWIRE.

Are you sure six schools in six years Sarah didn't google this?

:rofl:
K & R to expose morons.

the school is in HOLLYWOOD?!?!

:rofl:


And HOW DUMB to you have to be to think this building is the famously crumbling hospital???? Yeah, that's why soldiers are housed in roach-infested rooms-- all the money is going to LAWN CARE!

:rofl:

:rofl:

Went to tpm hehe

much cornier?" and I looked up at the screen in back of him and - swear to God - the picture switched
to a vast field of corn.

It had no connection to what he was saying, which made it even funnier!

Wouldn't he have caught this during the rehearsal? Surely they did a rehearsal for such an important presentation.
This isn't just the geeks fault, the people putting it together should have caught it, all the way up to and including McCain.
And it should have been easy to catch, if ANY ONE OF THEM had ever visited Walter Reed.

I noticed for a lot of the time the screen was solid blue. They probably just gave
up on the whole idea because it was so complicated they couldn't handle it.

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Not the first of course, but it does show once again that the Repubs just don't care when it comes right down to it. They aren't interested in anything beyond how it can be exploited for their own purposes.

You know, it isn't as if they don't test run the video/photologs that appear behind the candidates during speeches. And NO ONE in charge noticed this wasn't Walter Reed Army Medical Center!

You NEVER have graphics in your camera shot. With this stage there was not way to keep from it. Total idiots.

Googled Walter Reed and came up with the wrong picture, the question remains why would they want a picture of Walter Reed (Hospital) behind McCain? It's Walter Reed ARMY Hospital, and McCain was in the Navy. The Naval hospital is Bethesda -- the hospital where JFK, a naval veteran, was autopsied. McCain has no connection to Walter Reed that I know of. Worse, Walter Reed is now a symbol for the terrible way in which the Bush administration has treated returning wounded. Why use it?

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10033827-56.html

Excerpt:

In the latest wrinkle, Walter Reed's principal has now put out a statement saying the school did not approve McCain's use of the school.

"It has been brought to the school's attention that a picture of the front of our school, Walter Reed Middle School, was used as a backdrop at the Republican National Convention," Principal Donna Tobin said in a statement. "Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given by our school nor is the use of our school's picture an endorsement of any political party or view."



First Heart, and now the school! Nobody likes them! :rofl:

I can't believe that they went and (accidentally?) put him on both a green screen and a blue screen. It's like they were making sure they had whatever version the future youtube video editors prefer to work with.