Talking Points Memo has been on this story from the start. It began with an inquiry into just what the McCain campaign was thinking when they had him stand in front of a giant lime green backdrop for his speech last night...again. Turned out the green was actually from the grass in front of what appeared to be a huge mansion, which, again, seemed an odd choice, optics-wise. But TPM kept digging and figured out that the image was of Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, CA.

An odd choice, no? Why ever would they use that as the backdrop for McCain's nomination acceptance speech I wonder? Hmm. Could it be...

...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.

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it? To their credit The California Democratic Party is on it and the message is clear (from a CDP press release):

Today, John Heaner, [Region 13 Director, and Walter Reed Middle School PTA Board member], will be in front of Walter Reed Middle School to underscore how out of touch John McCain is.  Thursday night's convention photo op disaster illustrates that McCain and Bush have ignored the wounded troops at Walter Reed Hospital for so long they can't even tell the difference between the hospital and the school in North Hollywood.

I just got off the phone with John who told me the this was about the hypocrisy of John McCain and Republicans who

"...claim to care about wounded soldiers but no one in his campaign could spot the difference between the hospital where we send our wounded soldiers and the middle school where I send my little girls."

He said that John McCain "took ownership" of that image the second he walked out on that stage

"...during the biggest night of his life, for the biggest speech of his life."

So far, the McCain campaign is refusing comment, for obvious reasons, but they may not be able to for long. John told me the media interest in this is out of control. He'd already spoken to NBC, ABC, NPR among others and had to go because The New York Times was calling on the other line.

As if it couldn't get better, the school's principal, Donna Tobin, has released this statement:

"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."

TPM deserves a lot of credit for staying on this story and props to CDP for its rapid response today.

Steve Lombardo over on Pollster has a real good birds eye view of whats happened in the past month of so of the campaign.

There are now three tracking polls.

Hotline has it at 46-40, Obama over McCain. That's a combined movement of 3 percent, from 48-39, in their poll prior to the tracking poll's beginning.

Gallup has it at 48-44 today, Obama ahead, a combined movement of 3 percent since yesterdays.  Rasmussen has it at 48-46, Obama ahead, also a  combined movement of 3 percent since yesterdays.

We'll have to wait till Monday's results to have the full post-convention picture. Obama met the bounce he needed imo, going from 45% to 49% in the poll of polls on RCP, a solid 4% bounce that put him higher than he's ever been.

Nevertheless, the poll of polls has closed quickly thus far, with 3% being shaved off Obama's lead in the past two days, now with a lead of 2.6 percent.

For John McCain to meet Obama's bounce, he'd need to exceed 47 percent, which would mean a similar 4% bounce from where he started at 43 percent. Right now, he's at 44% for a 1% bounce thus far.

He can't complain that they didn't see him speak. The news out today is that 500K more people watched McCain speak than did Obama.

The RNC comes out with a second attack ad that starts by mocking Obama for addressing a large group - this time at Mile High stadium (the first mocked Berlin).

It runs in 12 states.

But what's more interesting is the weak choice of "liberal boogeymen" used in the ad. The two usuals, Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy, are unavailable for obvious reasons. So who's used to symbolize Obama's "liberal allies?"

Watch:

Byron Dorgan! Be afraid!

I'm sure his family is flattered, but they're probably the only ones outside Washington who recognize him (apologies, Senator).

And don't mess with Pat Leahy. He's in Batman.

Update [2008-9-5 19:10:13 by Josh Orton]: Perhaps I'm reading too much into this, but wouldn't the obvious target here be Pelosi? And if so, why wouldn't they use her? (That's a leading question...)

As was discussed on Meet The Bloggers today, Fox News has taken to attacking Barack Obama this cycle with virtually identical lines of attack as they used against John Kerry in 2004. It's actually pretty pathetic and really shameless. Brave New Films has released the latest in their excellent series of "Fox Attacks" videos to document it.

Watch it:

What's the likelihood that this crap is going to end now that Barack has gone on O'Reilly and they've come to some "truce." I won't hold my breath.

Come on over to MeetTheBloggers.org for a discussion about the corporate media and media bias in the election. Henry Rollins will be leading the discussion in place of Cenk today with our panel of bloggers including Jonathan Kim (FOX Attacks!), Liliana Segura (AlterNet.org) and Paul Waldman (Media Matters). As always, I'll be moderating the liveblog.

As mentioned before, the McCain campaign has no known plans to put Sarah Palin before the press. Not for interviews, not for a quick hello, nothing. Not on the Sunday shows either.

I was joking with friends yesterday that I half-expected McCain to send her on a "fact finding" mission to Iraq as a way to get her away from reporters.

Turns out it's back to Alaska instead (via Ben Smith):

Howard Fineman reported tonight (and I heard something similar) that Sarah Palin will, after a brief stretch on the trail, head back to Anchorage and away from the national media.
...
Fineman's source (and mine) said she'd spent much of the time between now and the middle of next week (when her son leaves for Iraq) straightening her affairs, tending to her official duties and packing her bags -- having departed abruptly for the national stage.
...
The campaign will "also use the plane time and time on the ground to begin the education of Sarah Palin," Fineman said. "They want to take that pause to train."

"The education of Sarah Palin??" Really?

At first I thought the press would go livid if Palin didn't do media - and then go nuts in defense of her convention attacks. Jerome told me I was nuts. And now with a poll to waive around showing a majority think the media is trying to hurt Palin, the McCain campaign will bully the press just enough to get away with the veep candidate's seclusion.

The traditional press has to ignore this kind of Republican "working the refs," which guilt-trips them into overcompensating the other way.

Palin is the Republicans' VP nominee. With less than two months away from the general election, she won't so much as talk to a reporter. Let's not let the Republican invented allegation of smear stop the public from knowing their nominee.

Traditional media: get thee to Alaska!  

At the very end of his acceptance speech, John McCain said,

Fight for what's right for our country.

Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children's future.

Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.

Stand up for each other; for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God Bless you.

Emphasis added.

It sounded to me like McCain was urging Republicans not to resign themselves to Barack Obama's inevitable history-making victory. It was strange to hear him acknowledge that pessimism at what should have been the climax of his speech.

Am I misreading this? Is there some other apparently inevitable thing McCain wants Republicans to stand up and fight against?

I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them. I will open new markets to our goods and services. My opponent will close them. I will cut government spending. He will increase it. My tax cuts will create jobs. His tax increases will eliminate them. My health care plan will make it easier for more Americans to find and keep good health care insurance. His plan will force small businesses to cut jobs, reduce wages, and force families into a government run health care system where a bureaucrat stands between you and your doctor.

The crowd kept interrupting with boos after McCain's description of what Obama would do. It came across as very negative.

These contrasts should have been flipped around so that the crowd kept interrupting McCain with applause after he compared his opponent's plans with his own ideas. You want television viewers to see the audience repeatedly cheering the nominee.

Well, we haven't seen a hit piece from the Associated Press yet, but I can tell you this: John McCain's speech wasn't a hit -- just ask the delegates.

Sleepy? Our colleague Patrick Healy reports from the floor: There is a delegate in the Utah section and a delegate in Puerto Rico who are both drooping, eyes closed - look asleep - both are men.

It's possible that this speech is the inverse of Sarah Palin's last night -- boring for the crowd inside, but more palatable for the general viewership. I say possible, though, for a reason; McCain's delivery was decidedly underwhelming, and the staging by his campaign -- particularly the lime Jell-O green screen that shone behind McCain during the beginning of the speech, only to turn to a color that at least to the television viewer might be described as blue raspberry -- was similarly unsuccessful.

McCain certainly tried to embrace the "change" label. Will it work for a candidate who hugged George W. Bush both figuratively and literally in recent years, voting at least 90 percent of the time for the most unpopular President in the history of polling? Color me unimpressed. But we shall wait and see...

What were your thoughts?

Update [2008-9-4 23:28:57 by Jonathan Singer]: Hillary Clinton's thoughts:

"The two party conventions showcased vastly different directions for our country. Senator Obama and Senator Biden offered the new ideas and positive change America needs and deserves after eight years of failed Republican leadership. Senator McCain and Governor Palin did not.

"After listening to all of the speeches this week, I heard nothing that suggests the Republicans are ready to fix the economy for middle class families, provide quality affordable health care for all Americans, guarantee equal pay for equal work for women, restore our nation's leadership in a complex world or tackle the myriad of challenges our country faces.

"So, to slightly amend my comments from Denver: NO WAY, NO HOW, NO McCAIN-PALIN."

That's unequivocal and really well said. Kudos to Senator Clinton for her grace and magnanimousness in working for the Democratic ticket this fall.