Sep 6, 2008 7:55 am US/Pacific
Dems Mock McCain's Use Of NoHo Walter Reed School
NORTH HOLLYWOOD
The apparent mistaken showing of a picture of a North Hollywood middle school during Sen. John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention became campaign fodder for the California Democratic Party Friday.
A picture of Walter Reed Middle School was shown during McCain's speech in St. Paul, Minn. Thursday, prompting some Democratic activists and bloggers to believe the campaign intended to show Walter Reed National Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Some pundits were confounded by the picture. A Fox News Channel commentator said it was a Stanford University sorority house. Anchor Brit Hume later correctly reported that it was the North Hollywood middle school.
The Daily News and several blogs theorized the school picture was mistakenly used as the result of a Google search for a photo of the hospital.
By late this morning, the school's telephone system became so overloaded that Principal Donna Tobin posted an official response on the school's Web site, declaring that the school did not give permission for its picture to be used, "nor is the use of our school's picture an endorsement of any political party or view," the Daily News reported.
It was unclear whether permission was required to show the school's picture.
The California Democratic Party conducted an afternoon news conference at the school Friday, featuring John Heaner, the state party's Region 13 director and a member of the school's PTA board.
"It's shocking that so many important Republicans can't tell the difference between the hospital where we send our nation's fallen heroes and the junior high where I send my little girls," Heaner said.
Campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds told the Los Angeles Times late this afternoon that the picture was used to illustrate McCain's call "for public education reforms that empower parents and students before bureaucrats and labor unions."
Both the middle school and hospital are named for the Army physician who led the team that confirmed the theory that yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes, rather than by direct contact. The confirmation opened entire new fields of epidemiology and biomedicine and allowed for resumption of work on the Panama Canal.
Walter Reed Middle School also played a role in a fictional campaign as the site where Rep. Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits) declared his ultimately successful campaign for the presidency in a episode of NBC drama "The West Wing" during the 2004-2005 season, according to The Times.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
