I hope I'm proved wrong but the decision to stage Obama's speech in Invesco Field instead of in the convention hall looks odder and riskier as the week goes on. It will make Obama look like a rock star when he needs to be looking like a fighting politician. Shrewd Republican strategist Mike Murphy lists a few more reasons:
The Pepsi center is the visual “home” of this convention. Having Obama do his big finish in another venue screws up the visual vernacular of the convention. Turn off the sound, and watch the tape. In the end it will look like two different conventions; one visually dominated by Clintons, another by Obama. That is a message of separation, not unity. Also, ask any TV director: staging a TV mega-event outdoors is very tricky. Lots of things are hard to control. The whole Obama speaks to massive crowd thing is impressive, but done. We’ve seen it before. Finally, the Mount Olympus set looks problematical at best. An Obama staffer assured me it’ll look better tomorrow. For their sake, it better. They should have changed this up yesterday and moved to a more intimate man in the arena set up back in the Pepsi center. Obama is the nominee, he should own this house.
UPDATE: Dee Dee Myers frames Obama's challenge this evening nicely: "He needs to get from the stadium to the diner, and it’s a hard thing to pull off.”
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