McCain Camp Picked The Wrong Walter Reed

[Richard Tafoya]

Hilarious. The gang who couldn't shoot straight.

TPM:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/mccains_speech_and_the_walter.php

As many of you know, one of the odder aspects of McCain's speech last night was the image of an unidentified mansion-like building on the big screen in the background behind him.


The image first appeared behind McCain around a minute into his speech, and stayed up for four or five minutes. It then faded out and was replaced by a plain blue background with an American flag.

So what was the mansion? TPM readers dug into the mystery and discovered (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/213806.php) that it looks like the Walter Reed Middle School in North Holllywood, California. And it turns out that this is exactly what the image was.

TPM's Kate Klonick just got off the phone with an official at the school who confirmed this. "We didn't know anything about it until it showed up last night," Cathy McLaughlin, the school's office technician, told Klonick. She confirmed that multiple media outlets have been calling and that a statement would be forthcoming from the school.

There was nothing particular in that stretch of McCain's speech that would explain why this particular image was used.

So what happened? A number of TPM readers have suggested a possible explanation (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/213806.php): The McCain team actually wanted to use imagery of Walter Reed Medical Center in the background. But someone pulled up this image instead.

We're working to find out exactly what happened. Stay tuned.

[Richard Tafoya]

Update: The school has a problem being used as a prop for the McCain speech.


http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/school_raps_mccain_for_using_i.php
Here's the statement from Donna Tobin, the principal...

"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. 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."

One other interesting development: The California Democratic Party is actually holding a press conference in front of the school within minutes, where Dems will hit McCain for not knowing the difference between the school and Walter Reed Medical Center, which is believed to be the backdrop the McCain campaign really wanted.

Though multiple news organizations are asking for clarification, the McCain campaign is still refusing to comment on questions about whether it had hoped to use the medical center as a backdrop and accidentally used the school instead. Hard to blame them...

[db44]

Considering I saw the Gateway Arch on the screen during at least one wide shot, I would also guess it was meant to be the Medical Center.

I was watching that at the time and chuckling. For one thing, I think it was with Palin up and I certainly don't think of St. Louis when I think of her. Then I was chuckling that they decided to have a slide show at all during the speeches. What, so people had something to capture their attention?

To be fair though, I didn't pay much attention to what was behind the Democrats, but I seem to remember it being the actual speech and that column background they had.