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.

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Cindy McCain us speaking now. Anyone watching? Joe Scarborough said that after the thrill of last night in the hall, the Excel Center feels like a "a mid year rules committee conference of the platform committee."

My Twitter feed is HERE.

John McCain should be speaking in about a half hour.

Update [2008-9-4 22:17:44 by Jonathan Singer]: Lime Jell-O!

Update [2008-9-4 22:24:34 by Todd Beeton]:Whoah, Code Pink in the house. McCain has lost control.

Update [2008-9-4 22:29:31 by Todd Beeton]:Wow, he's focusing an awful lot on people other than himself. When does the speech start?

Update [2008-9-4 22:40:0 by Todd Beeton]:Zzzzzz. Sarah, can you help him out out there, please?

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It's astounding when the media does its job and even more astounding when it's The AP that does it but credit where credit is due, they have a fact check of the speeches last night and Sarah Palin in particular turns out to be just an out and out liar.

Just a few of her doozies:

PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."

THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."

PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform -- not even in the state senate."

THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.

PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."

THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.

Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.

He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.

The article was posted last night but got a second lease on life today as the number one featured story on the Yahoo home page. Yahoo is generous, saying "Sarah Palin and her fellow RNC speakers weren't completely truthful at times" but the message is clear: she's a freakin liar.

Now, while neither The AP nor Yahoo comes right out and uses the "L" word, it's great to see the Obama campaign once again not shying away from it. In an e-mail to supporters, David Plouffe writes:

I wasn't planning on sending you something tonight. But if you saw what I saw from the Republican convention, you know that it demands a response.

I saw John McCain's attack squad of negative, cynical politicians. They lied about Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and they attacked you for being a part of this campaign. [...]

It's now clear that John McCain's campaign has decided that desperate lies and personal attacks -- on Barack Obama and on you -- are the only way they can earn a third term for the Bush policies that McCain has supported more than 90 percent of the time.

Notice that he refrains from using the term in relation to Palin specifically but the implication is clear.

Update [2008-9-4 13:49:46 by Todd Beeton]:And as if on cue:

The fired Alaskan official, whose dismissal has become the subject of a state senate committee's investigation of Gov. Sarah Palin, has told ABC News that she has not been entirely truthful on the matter.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Walt Monegan, the former Alaskan Public Safety Commissioner, said he was dismissed because he refused to fire the Governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper. [...]

Monegan says he believes that the Governor has not told the truth about what happened.

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I'm really sorry that I just didn't stay home to blog the DNCC. I had a laptop w/o a ethernet connection and wound up just soaking up all the speeches with good seats in the Denver hall, with no ability to blog... then the walk time from the hall to the wireless... it just made for wanting to watch the convention in the hall, party till 2 am, and then sleep some in-between (the Ramada had a nice outside pool too).

For the GOP, I watched the TV speeches tonight in full, and have just one word.

Palin.

We have met someone that we will be doing battle against for a decade or more. Seriously. I've never seen a woman, or a man for that matter, speak that way, prime time, national, convention, live, ever. She blows away Hillary Clinton. Sorry, but that's what it is. Palin's deft speaking style is like watching visceral connective tissue being torn-- with a child in arms [understand that the Clinton comparison is within the context of contra Obama].

OK, so my guess. Come November, and Obama's glorious victory, Palin is who they pronounce as the '12 nominee against Obama. Either that, or Palin is Prez after McCain croaks on a pretzel from 2 years of the WH.

Palin captured the GOP's heart and flag tonight. She hit it 456 ft into deep right field, and way friggin outside the park.

Romney? Huckabee? Giuliani? Amateurs all. Nada comparison (I can't believe I even put Whitman in Palin's league). Anyone that thinks McCain could have chosen better than Palin, among the GOP ranks, is on drugs.  Talk about a cultural war that's on again!

Also, "Drill baby Drill!" wtf is that?

Update [2008-9-4 1:31:30 by Jerome Armstrong]:Joe Klein as an off-the-kuff blogger is sooo lacking, but on reflection, gets it better:

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I hadn't seen this when I posted on the right's war against the media but Brian Williams just read from Joe Klein's defense of the media on MSNBC:

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

Has John McCain managed to lose both Joe Klein and Brian Williams?

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