NYT: For the President, Special Setup Is Planned at Convention

[kskiska]

Moving to bring a special intimacy to the carefully scripted atmosphere of a political convention, President Bush will give his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention next week from a small circular stage in a sea of thousands of delegates and other guests.

"We wanted the president to be closer to people and surrounded by people," Mark McKinnon, Mr. Bush's chief media adviser, said. "It sort of reflected his strength and character as the man in the arena."

(snip)

But on Thursday, the day that Mr. Bush is to accept the party's nomination and the day that is expected to be the most watched of the convention, the floor will be reconfigured. Convention planners did not want to go into great detail, hoping to retain an element of surprise, but a small model of the platform suggested what will ultimately take shape.

The model shows a long runway built out from the stage, ending at a circular platform. Convention officials said that it would take 20 workers eight to 10 hours to build the stage and that they would start their work at the end of Wednesday night's proceedings. Nine wide steps will lead from the audience up to the platform, where the president will stand on a carpet decorated with the presidential seal.

(snip)

For starters, the team chose New York, making this the first time the Republicans have held their convention in the city. Organizers said they also had tried to mimic the techniques of a television show, breaking the convention into blocks, each with a beginning, a middle and an end. Live music will be used to entertain and to serve as a transition from one segment to the next.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/27/politics/campaign/27convention.html?hp

[Fovea]

1. Will he be wearing

that fetching jumpsuit/codpiece number?
He looks so very butch in it.
He looks like a guy who could disco all night long.

[Born Free]

28. Oh yeah, I can see it now

The loud classical music, the center floor raising up with fog and confetti as the bush coward pretends to be a hero, man this guy sure loves to play dress up and act like a hero. It must really be rough looking into a mirrow looking atcoward he is, hiding behind so many others including God.

[Fovea]

41. I thought Robert Graves

got him pretty much right in I Claudius. Got the name wrong though.

[jayctravis]

33. I would expect....

a sash and some chasing runway lights.

[InkAddict]

58. Nope, the emperor's NEW clothes n/t

[soothsayer]

2. pretty clever, but everything they do is going to backfire, hee hee hee

goofballs

[tridim]

3. Please, please, please fly him to the stage on a cable

That would be really cool RNC!

[oldhat]

5. Two words: Rocket pack

What if Karl Rove strapped a rocket pack to him and he crashed through the glass ceiling with Saddam Hussein's handgun in one hand and an American flag in the other?



Judy Woodruff would soak her panties!

USA! USA!

[InkAddict]

59. But, what if the tiles came off in the

strategic area wheel well? "Houston, we have a problem."

[Longhorn]

63. LOL! Great graphic!

Or maybe OBL strapped between his legs, like one of his daddy's piggyback parachute jumps!

[skooooo]

35. oh no...if they did that ..

..you know Bush would get reelected!!!

Shhhhhhhh.

[loudsue]

4. All hat, no cattle. All stage, no class act.

Sheesh! What a bunch of LOSERS!!!

:kick::kick::kick:

[bluestateguy]

6. Have fun, I'll be watching a rented video

[daleo]

7. Will he be lowered to the podium on a wire, with angel wings and a halo?

That would be their idea of proving that he is a "man of the people".

[jus_the_facts]

8. where he will RISE up amongst his sheeple and spontaneously combusts...

....C0NSUMED IN A BLAZE OF BILE GREENISH LIGHT....NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN.....cue to cameras showin' mass hysteria around the arena....then zoom out to the protest area where there are THRONGS of extremely jubilant GOP protesters....film at eleven...

[wurzel]

54. Bush will ascend in a cloud of balloons with Ashcroft singing

"Let the Eagle Soar".

[Mokito]

66. NO BALLOONS! (By order of KKKarl Rove)

If one happens to pop, bush might end up in Nebraska again.

[wurzel]

69. Will they have pretzels?

[pfitz59]

9. He should do a Bennie Hinn (AKA Kathryn Kuhlman)

Walk up to folks, touch them and watch them swoon! "Be healed!" I can just see some over-dressed matron having an orgasm as Shrubya lords about. These folks are nuts...

[POed_Ex_Repub]

10. Imagine if they put that much work into shaping policy....

If they'd put 1/10 the effort into policy that they put into image shaping, we might actually have a government.

[Sugarbleus]

11. OMFG,,,, this sounds entirely TOO Orwelian

Right in the middle of the people? Like a Saint? Like their God? Omgomgomgomgomg...........

..'gently speaking to his "people"...cooing to them the "things they want to hear...' Oooooomgomgomg!!!

This is too creepy people!!

[jayctravis]

34. Hopefully...

there won't be a Jesus Christ Superstar moment of Bush surrounded by lepers as he screams "there are too many of you!"

Will the bulletproof glass cylinder pop up from underneath the floor if anyone breaches the space bubble?

[Sugarbleus]

46. Ahhhhhh geez, I saw them preparing this contraption today...

on the Tube....... These people are SICK TWISTS folks, really really psychologically sick... Did anyone catch the glint in the eye and tilt in the head of Nero~~(I mean bush) today as they filmed him walking away from the chopper? He is NUTSSSSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZ :scared:

Why in heaven's name doesn't the other side SEE IT?? (those not part of the program I mean)

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. How about posing the bastard

Like the Beatles, in front of cardboard stand ups of Osama & Co., Sadr, the thousand dead troops, and stacks of prosthetic limbs.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[flordehinojos]

20. Not funny? the guy is such a coward and such a nut case

I wouldn't be surprised if that circular stage IS encased in bullet proof glass. "God", after all, must not be contaminated by human germs,even if they are well to do republican germs and it will provide him protection from whatever terrorists may dare to pretend they are a republican bush supporter with the intention of doing him harm. Not that I wish him harm. This world is so mired in violence. we do not need any more.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

15. Shhh...don't give away the halo you plan to holographically place

around his fat useless head

[swag]

16. "a man in the arena" = pure fucking Nixon phraseology! 1968 Script!

actually, pure Roger Ailes (yes, Fox News master who was with Nixon for years). Find a 35 cent copy of Theodore White's "The Selling of the President, 1968" and you'll read about Ailes, Nixon, sales, and these "Man in the Arena" sessions designed to , well, let's let Danielle Kosovich's American University thesis recap for us:

"Roger Ailes acknowledged Nixon’s desire to have control over the media image. Ailes projected and created staged Question and Answer sessions that allowed Nixon to interact with real Americans—really, the show was scripted and audience members hand-picked to represent certain members of key constituencies. These “Man in the Arena” shows will be discussed at length in regards to the Egalitarian narrative later in the paper."

http://www.american.edu/academic.depts/honors/Honors%20Activities/2004%20capstones/Danielle%20Kosanovich.pdf

What does this say about the campaign, that they're doing this 26-year-old Nixon/Ailes thing? Fucking weird.

on edit: what RoveBush have been staging for months. What stunned me was to read those words again. I'm sure others have picked up on this before. I hadn't. Slow on the uptake.

[ugarte]

17. Calling Leni Riefenstahl

Might as well get the best.

[TahitiNut]

19. New(york)emberg Rally?

[TXDemGal]

18. It's so damned obvious why they going for this setup

So the few "colored people" can be seen in back of Dim Son when the camera is on him for his cue card reading attempt.

I won't be watching, of course. I know from the past 3.5 years of this maladministration that my delicate digestion just can't handle it.

[TahitiNut]

21. He'll deliver the "Sermon On The Mount" among his acolytes and believers.

George the Messiah, Savior of the Rich, and Seller of Very Small Camels and Very Large Needles.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[lulu]

39. Exactly!

I posted this same thing on another thread. Bush is Jesus and all his loving disciples will look up at him and weep.

It's just plain sick.

[InkAddict]

62. Yes, the elite will inherit the earth but

my question is, "What will they do with all those empty Wal-Mart parking lots, mercury-poisoned fish, and "No-Fear" loaf-ers?

Holy smokers! I got the answer: "Feed it to the multitude."

[progressivebydesign]

22. Tell the truth NYT!!

We've already read that this is NOT to make him dramatic, it's to protect his paranoid ass! He's going to rise above the crowd and appear in some sort of bullet and blast-proof bubble...

This guy has some sort of messianic complex. Have you EVER heard of a president or candidate needing to appear in some fucking special stage???? He's nuts.

[Kool Kitty]

24. Exactly. This is so he is protected from

every angle. He's afraid, and he has no one to blame but himself and the rest of the puppeteers that pull his strings.

And this is probably the dumbest question but I'm going to ask it anyway-who is paying for all this high-tech insanity and for all the security? Does NYC have to foot this whole bill?

[NYC]

29. No, the federal gov't. is contributing some money for security.

I doubt it will cover the expense.

As far as I know, the RNC has to pay for the convention itself.

[TeeYiYi]

23. Leap of Faith . . .

. . . a confused religious comedy.



TYY

[InkAddict]

64. Only thing to do is jump over the moon!

RENT! - Reality Show

They've closed everything real down
Like barns and trophs and...
Performin' Spaces, And replaced it all with lies and rules and
Virtual Life...

But there is a way out
OOOOOOO
Only thing to do is jump over the moon

I gotta get outta here
It's like i'm being tied to the hood of
a yellow rental truck being packed in with fertilizer and fuel oil pushed over a cliff by a suicidal mickey mouse
I gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta find a way... to jump over the moon

[sofa king]

25. Public Enemies--In the Round!

[annabanana]

42. giggle....well, THIS pic went straight to my desktop!

very very funny

[psychopomp]

26. Rolling Stones had the same setup about three years ago

I saw the show on TV. Basically, 2/3 into the show a long ramp extended from the stage to a round platform in the middle of the crowd. The band walked from the stage to the platform and did an acoustic set in the center of the audience and then went back to the front stage to the show's climax.

[Matilda]

27. After he makes his acceptance speech,

the audience will all sing "Tomorrow Belongs to Me", then raise
their right arms and shout "Sieg heil".

Or am I thiking of someone else?

[bobbieinok]

52. it will be a tent revival with the congregation softly singing Benny Hinn'

theme song 'Anointing'

[SoCalDem]

30. What a "bwave widdew boy".. "surrounded by people"

H I S ...people....the "safe" people..:puke:

[minkyboodle]

31. is he going to descend from the ceiling playing a piano??

why not go full on 80s band power ballad style?? Triumph of the will anyone?

[rooboy]

32. It's to prevent horses from sneaking up behind him. n/t

[Sugarbleus]

47. Good one!! n/t

[tlcandie]

36. Reminds me of more Christian symbology.. sickening..

Sea of saints surrounding their Master. Whatever it is, you can bet it will be made to give him THAT saintly, all-knowing, Godly glow.

This is all so sickening and I can't believe these people can't see how they are being used. :cry:

Last night I thought to myself, after I typed something in agreement to MaryPat about the members of RNC are nothing but props to this regime, that he holds himself on such a podium/altar that he believes himself to be above everyone and everything and that indeed this is all just one huge acting scene with the best props in the world to pull off what he rightly believes is his destiny...

Leader of the free world's largest superpower to bring in Christ's reign via Armagedon.

There's something terribly sick about all of this.

[Tight_rope]

37. While America is watching...They will see the "RICH" partying at the RNC!

Boy, how will it look to the poor, unemployed, uninsured, about to be homeless people who will be watching the biggest party of the century.

Under all this glists and glamor the poor disenfranchised will see the truth. Maybe a few die hard repukes will have lost their jobs this week and take serious offense to the "PARTY OF THE YEAR"!:argh:

[Neecy]

38. pffffft

The only 'special set-up' appropriate for this pResident is a jail cell.

[Cronus Protagonist]

40. He''ll look like an unopened Ken Doll owned by Dorian Gray (eom)

Swiftboat Veterans for Bush - TRUTH!!!

Lick Laura's Bush - Drop Bush Not Bombs! - FUCK BUSH
http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13

[Eurobabe]

43. so let me guess, he rented the popemobile??

[napi21]

44. I was wondering if this would be the swin suit, or ball gown......

Geesh! If this descriiption is correct, this sounds like a real Hollywood production....of Miss America!

I wasn't planning to watch any of this convention, but I just might have to see this one! Just to see the entrance.

[InkAddict]

65. Please remember that the Pageant

wants to eliminate the Talent portion since the prizes are for brains not beauty or proportion.

[Duncan Grant]

45. Is * trying to be Mick Jagger or Benny Hinn?

Obviously it's Benny Hinn - but if * starts "laying hands" on the faithful... :puke:

[Gloria]

48. A friend reminded me that Liddy Dole pulled this stunt....was it at

the 2000 Convention? I know that was in her repretoire when she ran for Senate.... She walked around like Oprah....

Is Bush going to walk around or will a podium rise up from the floor?

Having been in MSG many times, I have to wonder if this won't sort of make him look like a pygmy? I mean, a podium with a huge backdrop carries an aura of presence and authority. On TV, will the project images of a flag or something behind him or will we just see out of focus faces in various stages of ecstasy?

And where does he go afterwards? Back up the ramp shaking hands a la Elvis for the balloon drop?? All he needs is one of the jewel-encrusted robes.........

[neuvocat]

49. Just like a ringmaster.

The RNC couldn't do more to make this into a circus now, could they?

[ElementaryPenguin]

50. Ha! The last thing they want is to "reflect his strength and character!"

* has the strength and character of a maggot - or a retarded inch worm - at best! This should really be a laugh!

[Ron Green]

51. This is it, the real no-shit ANTICHRIST!

I mean, think about it...Bush talks all about humility, about how Jesus is his favorite "political philosopher," he prays fervently in public, drops all kinds of fundy phrases like "wonder-working power," and yet he REFUSES to walk the walk in any sort of Christ-like way.

And now, his attending minions have scripted this messianic made-for-television appearance with which they will attempt to fool most of the people part of the time into thinking that this "man of the people" is the right leader in these perilous times.

What's the next phase?

:scared: :crazy: :mad: :(

[tlcandie]

53. 1000 years of hell ...

AFTER the Christians disappear... wisked away to heaven by their saviour!

[David Zephyr]

55. If Assholes Could Fly, Madison Square Garden Would Be An Airport.

I sill love that joke.

[Bo]

56. Straight from the Nixon playbook

[elcondor]

57. "The man in the arena" What the FUCK does that

even mean?! Oy vey . . .

[despairing optimist]

60. Sorta like Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall

Only she had talent and was a much better entertainer.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

61. There He Is...(inset song notes)

Mr Fucked up America...

[MisterP]

67. how will this match with the NYDailyNews's report of a bulletproof zone

for the Prez. Will it be:
a) Chimp-inna-Bubble
b) Hamster tunnel
c) Primate Exhibit

[Geo55]

68. I bet they figure how to project an "aura"

eminating from his lil' pin head.