Whoops, Wrong Walter
This should erase any lingering doubt that the Republican National Convention was more about show than substance.
Last night, John McCain began his speech standing in front of a giant picture of Walter Reed.
But it wasn’t Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
It was Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, California.
Iraq war veteran Brian McGough, who spent over 2 years at Walter Reed (the Medical Center) as both an inpatient and an outpatient, is outraged:
Sen. McCain wanted a back-drop of Walter Reed so that he could be seen as a champion for reform in DC and to remind us that he will never allow it to happen again. And if that is the case why did Sen. McCain vote against an increase in funding for military and veterans hospitals? He voted against it because the “maverick” sided with his party in order to keep tax cuts for the wealthiest.
McCain allowed the wrong back-drop to be used at his speech because he didn’t care. McCain voted against increasing funding to the hospital because he didn’t care. But I do care. And thats why it bothers me that some one who is running for The President of the United States does not.
h/t VoteVets.org
Alan,
You are throwing this stuff out there…it reminds me of throwing spaghetti the refrigerator to see if it’s done. So I ask you is it done?
Are you a bull dog for Obama? Sure looks like you are to me.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Colmes “The Dark Side” has to be the greatest down in the mouth negative person around. One of the problems with all these bills that come before the congress is that the earmark experts add so much crap to the bill that only a tax & spend congressman can sign off on it. Really, how important is the picture with the big green lawn anyway, except for Colmes. What an inconsequential clown!
September 5th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Shows a lack of attention to detail. Very sloppy for someone who thinks that they are qualified to be President. I see a pattern starting to develop with his whole campaign. Lord help us should he become President.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Come on now .. Let’s stay focused on what really matters here. John McCain was a P.O.W.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Looking at the voting on this funding, it is amazing to see how few Republican senators support the troops in such a fundamental way.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Hilarious! I’d wondered what that building was! I seriously thought maybe a Democrat had flashed a picture of one of McCain’s houses up on the greenscreen.
You know, like a slideshow showcasing his many domiciles.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Another little example of how full of baloney the Republicans are when they say they care about our troops. They only care if the troops are in a war they started; beyond that our serving men and women can just fend for themselves.
Any conservatives out there should read a few voting records before they decide that Democrats are against military benefits and veteran privaledges.
There is much more that is flawed in McCain’s camp than the fact that they don’t know a middle school from a vet hospital but it’s a place to start.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I didn’t know what the picture was and throughout the speech I kept thinking about how distracting it was to have such large videos projecting as a backdrop during such an important speech. As a public speaker, one of the things we learn is to use projections/charts/graphs etc.. sparingly and always pause after putting it up because for the first few seconds you put something new up there, people are not hearing what you are saying. Perhaps they should have gotten some fake columns.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
no matter what McSame says of does. he is inmune to critique, not because he is out of touch, but because he was a P.O.W. yea, that’s the answer for everything…
questions: issues, economy, housing, healthcare… answer: american hero, P.O.W, and this statement “I will do everything that i can or in my power” .
what, what is it that you are going to do???? you certanly did not say it last night… oh, right, WAR HERO, P.O.W, I forgot, my bad, tha’s what we are going to feed our children with, some war hero and P.O.W… sure sounds yummy!!
September 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hey! Give McCain a break.. He didn’t have back-drops for 5 1/2 yrs. when he was a POW.
.
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September 5th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
You have to watch this video – you will die from laughing
http://perezhilton.com/2008-09-04-stewart-on-palin
September 5th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Oh yes.. I AM SURE McCain said….oh I don’t care what Walter Reed you use, use any one you’ve got. LAME.
To be honest the backdrop thing was cool, I loved the beautiful flag waving. Best part, was the fireworks on the screen. Unlike the ones Obama used, these were pretty gentle on the environment.
September 5th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Alan:
This shows that big time politicians’ staffs–in both parties–are often full of people who are clueless about military matters. Just as McCain’s staffers allowed this picture of the Walter Reed Middle School (instead of the Walter Reed Hospital), Nancy Pelosi’s staff once included a picture of a soldier to show her support for the troops. The problem with Ms. Pelosi’s “soldier” photo was that it was a photo of a Canadian soldier. Her non-veteran staffers didn’t know the difference…
September 5th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Jenn,
You think the backdrop is cool? Well, perhaps if he was talking about a school – then yes, it’s a loving picture.
But, the man was talking about a veteran’s hospital! How completely insulting. Yes, anybody can make a mistake – but this is the most important speech of his life – pretty damn stupid of a thing to screw up.
What a dumb ass. He needs to go retire and live off of his wife’s millions.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Maybe he could have said something smart, like “finally I am proud of my country”.
Must have forgotten about her free Princeton Education her country paid for. Oh I forgot, she deserved that. Because her great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a slave. Sorry, my bad.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
[...] and the backdrop of a middle school during Senator McCain’s speech last night. A reader of Alan Colmes has this to say: McCain allowed the wrong back-drop to be used at his speech because he didn’t [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Just a tad bit intolerant MARINE MOM?
Perhaps you should speak to a counselor about your anger management problem now; you know… before you really go off the deep end when we have an African – American President.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Marine Mom,
First off, I have no idea whether it is true that her education was free. But for the sake of the arguement I’ll assume it was.
Secondly I have no idea whether her great, great, great, great, great grandfather was a slave or not. But for the sake of the argument I’ll assume he was.
Thirdly I have no idea whether she was given this assumed free education based on the assumed fact that her g,g,g,g,g grandfather was a slave.
But why in the world do you care what criteria a private university uses to determine who will get scholarships or not? Should I be making judgments on where you spend your charitable dollars, and whether those people deserve it or not?
September 5th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Perhaps that school is the school Sara Palin intends to send her now 5 children and her grandchildren, along with the other 15 children her and her daughters will probably pump out in their future years.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
That’s not a school. It’s a funeral home.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Family Values Bunny Ranch guy should move to Europe.
They love abortion there. They love abortion so much many countries have a native population growth rate of about 1.1 (around 2.1 is needed for population increase).. nations like Spain will see it’s population of Spanish people halving with each generation.. if not faster.
Meanwhile they invited Jihadis to come in and be the population they aborted away.
And just like abortionists, Jihadis love death too.
September 6th, 2008 at 8:50 am
Brian McGough: John McCain did NOT have anything to do with the backdrop at the RNC. In fact when he turned to look at it he said something in the order of “whoops”
To say that a man with McCain’s record did not or does not care is offensive. Your justifiable anger at a war that has been badly run (the main driving force for the removal of Donald Rumsfed, and biggest critic of how the war was being run was John McCain), has clouded your vision. Your service to your country is admirable. Your obvious bitterness is understandable. But lay the blame where it really belongs. Bush if you like, Chaney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz. But not a man who has been your strongest advocate. Who has visited more hospitalized vets than most doctors.
I don’t know your politics, but remember, a certain Senator from Illinois, choose to go to the gym in Berlin rather than visit the troops in the hospital. A man who has been to war, and has both seen and felt its consequences, is far less willing to commit others to the same as one who has NOT (compare McCain to Bush) If John McCain had felt the Iraq war was absolutely necessary, he would have done it differently, and with different consequences. And remember what Colin Powell warned -”if you break it, you must fix it!” Well, we all know Bush broke it. It was NOT Obama who was criticising Rumsfeld and Chaney – it was McCain. A unilateral pullout will leave a regional conflict that will engulf the entire middle east and beyond – probably including Israel. And Putin, and Kim, and Chavez, and Ahnadinejad are ready. And the US will be introducing conscription, and I assure you the body count will NOT decline. No sense claiming that AlQueda wasn’t there before the war (they weren’t) – another of Obama’s off the cuff remarks that shows that “He doesn’t get it”; but they are there now. Being a stork with your head in the sand (I could be far ruder) is not a qualification that you want in a president.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
The Timing and coordination of the media to the speech is handled by staffers. Production, Sound, Lighting and media Technitians. Was A mistake made? Yes
But to blame it on McCain is Assinine. In no way did he mean to insult anyone with that picture.Just another Nit pick to get all hot and bothered over to avoid real issues. By the way, What do you guys have against a Middle School?
September 7th, 2008 at 1:57 am
Jenn: “I loved the beautiful flag waving. Best part, was the fireworks on the screen. Unlike the ones Obama used, these were pretty gentle on the environment.”
rofl outlandish. and running those gigantic electronic video screens doesnt require ‘electricity’ produced by all things environmentally unfriendly.
September 7th, 2008 at 7:32 am