Republicans don't know the Difference between Walter Reed Middle School and Walter Reed Hospital

No wonder McCain VOTES NO on Veterans Benefits, he thinks he is VOTING NO on Schools again.

The Mystery Of McCain's Walter Reed Backdrop

TPM - Greg Sargent

As many of you know, one of the odder aspects of McCain's speech last night was the image of an unidentified mansion-like building on the big screen in the background behind him.

The image first appeared behind McCain around a minute into his speech, and stayed up for four or five minutes. It then faded out and was replaced by a plain blue background with an American flag.

So what was the mansion? TPM readers dug into the mystery and discovered that it looks like the Walter Reed Middle School in North Holllywood, California. And it turns out that this is exactly what the image was.

TPM's Kate Klonick just got off the phone with an official at the school who confirmed this. "We didn't know anything about it until it showed up last night," Cathy McLaughlin, the school's office technician, told Klonick. She confirmed that multiple media outlets have been calling and that a statement would be forthcoming from the school.

There was nothing particular in that stretch of McCain's speech that would explain why this particular image was used.

So what happened? A number of TPM readers have suggested a possible explanation: The McCain team actually wanted to use imagery of Walter Reed Medical Center in the background. But someone pulled up this image instead.