That's Not Stock Photo Keyword Searching We Can Believe In!

Josh Micah Marshall on the most unbelievable visual demonstration of McCain campaign total incompetence ever:

Talking Points Memo | Mystery Solved!: 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.... [T]he building is actually the main building on the campus of the Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California.... 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... [it was supposed to be] Walter Reed Army Medical Center.... 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?...

Comments

[Richard Cownie]

Well, what we're seeing now is basically the third-rate remnants of the Bush/Rove campaign operation. In 2000 that team was pretty good, they kept Bush strictly on message, mostly kept his weaknesses under wraps, and made the election close enough that a bad count in Florida and a stacked SCOTUS could swing it. In 2004 the first-rate people had moved on, and they had some major embarrassments - e.g. Bush's awful debate performances. Still with incumbency, a big money advantage, and a big thumb on the scale in Ohio (and perhaps elsewhere - I still haven't heard any remotely convincing innocent explanation for the widespread discrepancy between exit polls and official results), they scraped through. Then more of the talented people moved on. And now it's just the ones who couldn't get a better job anywhere else, trying to run the same damn campaign one more time, but with an awkward candidate on the top of the ticket who doesn't fit the mold, hates the script, and is tired and old.

So it's a big mess. They really just aren't very good at this.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign - together with the Dean DNC 50-state strategy - have been getting a 21st-century ground operation in place. I think - and very much hope - that the solid lead Obama has in the (state) polls is nevertheless underestimating what's going to happen when his registration and GOTV effort kicks in. His ground organization overwhelmed HRC, especially in the caucus states, and they'll have a lot more money and a lot more time to prepare for the general.

[Ken Houghton]

Because someone in the Ancestral Party knew better than to put up an actual picture of Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital--the place with abominable conditions for returning Veterans of the Iraq/Afghanistan implosions, a hospital scheduled to be closed by the Bush Administration because they care about the troops?

That wasn't incompetence: it was deliberate, knowing that someone would figure out what was "supposed" to be there and that newscasters--and, shame on him, JMM--would just link the speech to the "real" Walter Reed and make the Party appear "stronger" without mentioning the recent Walter Reed events.

[Delicious Pundit]

Walter Reed Middle School has an excellent magnet program, btw, so maybe it's more of the well-known Republican support for beleaguered public school parents. Or am I to conclude from the speeches on Wednesday that Republicans are in favor of education up until the time you acquire one?

[Whammer]

"Republicans are in favor of education up until the time you acquire one".......

Delicious Pundit, that is an excellent line -- I'm going to steal it!!

[mark]

Huh? Republicans are clearly in favor of education: Sarah Palin attended five -- that's 5 -- different colleges.