The McCain campaign actually got lucky on this backdrop snafu. Originally, there was a spelling error in the Google image search, and the minimum-waged, teen-aged technician loaded in an image of a Walter Reade Movie theater. After his supervisor discovered the spelling mistake a few minutes before the speech, they had to do a fast search on "Walter Reed M...", and unfortunately came up with the middle school picture.

It's all coming out in the next issue of Geeks Enquirer.

Posted at September 5, 2008 5:22 PM in response to School Raps McCain For Using Image As Speech Backdrop Without Permission

McCain got lucky. The first version of the picture was a Walter Reade movie theater. So they had to scramble to get a Walter Reed image, and the middle school ("Walter Reed M...") was the best they could do on short notice.

Posted at September 5, 2008 2:42 PM in response to The Mystery Of McCain's Walter Reed Backdrop

McCain got lucky. The first version of the picture was a Walter Reade movie theater. So that had to scramble to get a Walter Reed image, and the middle school ("Walter Reed M...") was the best they could do on short notice.

Posted at September 5, 2008 2:37 PM in response to The Mystery Of McCain's Walter Reed Backdrop

The Obama campaign needs to come back against the Palin speech on specifics. She claimed that Obama wrote two books but no laws (now in NYT article). That claim has to be refuted before it gets accepted in the conventional wisdom. She claimed that she opposed the bridge to nowhere, but she was first for it.

These rebuttals are easily documented, and their purpose is to establish that Palin cannot be trusted in what she says. This distrust will resonate with the other scandals brewing against her.

Posted at September 4, 2008 12:26 AM in response to Obama Campaign On Palin: Divisive And Partisan

The Obama campaign needs to come back against the Palin speech on specifics. She claimed that Obama wrote two books but no laws (now in NYT article). That claim has to be refuted before it gets accepted in the conventional wisdom. She claimed that she opposed the bridge to nowhere, but she was first for it.

These rebuttals are easily documented, and their purpose is to establish that Palin cannot be trusted in what she says. This distrust will resonate with the other scandals brewing against her.

Posted at September 4, 2008 12:23 AM in response to Obama Campaign On Palin: Divisive And Partisan

Well the major rap against Sarah Palin is that she had very little experience at the national level. It is great to see that by lawyering up, a la Rove, Libby, Bush, Cheney in the Valerie Plame leak case, that the good governor is getting fast track learning curve. Major kudos to John McCain at whose feet Sarah Palin is supposed to be gaining all this knowledge.

Posted at September 1, 2008 5:33 PM in response to Palin Hires Lawyer for Trooper-Gate Investigation

It is worth recalling that the watchword of Barack's campaign is "No drama Obama". Today's pregnancy and Stevens 527 news are examples of drama. Obama's secret weapon against McCain may be that he offers the American voters some spell of peace and quiet confidence.

Posted at September 1, 2008 3:27 PM in response to Palin Likely to Testify Soon, Under Oath, in Trooper-Gate Probe

On the McCain VP selection. One can speculate that McCain wanted to wait until after Obama's speech tonight before making the VP choice. Now that he has seen what he is up against in this tough Obama, perhaps the safe choice of the unknown Pawlenty (Mr. Bridge to the bottom of the Mississippi) is too risky. Pawlenty gets only a few % of the Republican delegates in a poll. Instead, McCain will have to go with Romney who gets 30-40% at least. And forget about Lieberman.

Posted at August 29, 2008 1:10 AM in response to Obama's Speech Heavy In Specifics And Direct Hits -- Thanks To McCain's Attacks!

Of course Obama praised the McCain who spent 5.5 years as a POW in Hanoi. And after that, Obama destroyed the McCain who has spent much of the past 25 years, and at least 90% of the last 8 years, not watching out for the welfare of ordinary Americans.

Posted at August 29, 2008 1:03 AM in response to Obama's Speech Heavy In Specifics And Direct Hits -- Thanks To McCain's Attacks!

For my thinking No way. No how. No McCain. is much better than a point-by-point retraction of all the bad things Clinton said about Obama, and which McCain is trying to use for the moment. Those three sentences show up in a big font on both the CNN and USA Today web sites right now. Also, from a polemical viewpoint, retracting something one said in the past tends to undercut the credibility of what one is trying to say at present.

And Clinton did release her pledged delegates on Sunday, in advance of this speech.

Posted at August 27, 2008 12:05 AM in response to Hillary: "Were You In This Campaign Just For Me?"