The Art of Presentation: John McCain Goes to Middle School
Talking Points Memo raised a good point while watching McCain's nomination speech on television.
Why was he giving it in front of a green screen?
As the camera panned out, the whole backdrop was revealed:
Ah, okay. He's giving his speech in front of... a mansion?
Then TPM's readers solved the mystery: it's a picture of a Middle School in North Hollywood, California.
Why would he use that?
Apparently it's Walter Reed Middle School. Like Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
There are three possibilities:
- as part of a "small town" theme for the convention, the RNC wanted to showcase the San Fernando Valley, a racially diverse section of Los Angeles of particularly high population density;
- after showing slow-motion video of the World Trade Center attack, the RNC sought to use an almost-Nabokovian depth of irony and subtlety to convey that domestic freedom and prosperity are dependent upon the sacrifice of soldiers in foreign wars; or,
- some technician searched an image database for "Walter Reed" and used the above without double checking what it represented.
What do you think?
